A Mother's Difference: The Philosopher's Stone
by g.g.foogle
Summary: Sometimes, just having a mother can make a life altering difference.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"So how's my little man doing?" James Potter said as he leaned on the door frame. He had a slight grin on his face as he watched his wife put a tired, yet fussy, fifteen month old into his crib.

"He's exhausted, even if he doesn't know it," Lily Potter said as she finally placed Harry onto the mattress. He was out almost the instant he hit the sheet.

"As is his mother," she continued as she plopped into the rocking chair next to the crib, "I would have never had guessed that he would be that much of a handful with only one of us watching him," she turned her head to look at her husband, "So what did Albus have to say that took him three hours?"

James' grin shifted to that of a weary frown, but to Lily perspective, it seemed that he went from holding up the door frame to the frame hold _him_ up. She knew such a drastic shift didn't bode well, and she prepared herself for the worse.

"It's getting bad out there, Lily. More and more people have disappeared, and the Death Eaters' activities have increased nearly ten fold. It's like…"

"It's like they're looking for something," she whispered, though James could hear her clearly, "looking for us."

"That's what Dumbledore thinks as well," James said. Lily noticed that he had used the Hogwarts headmaster's last name. Usually that meant they had argued, and that he had grudgingly accepted the man's decision.

"What's wrong, dear?"

James sighed as he pushed himself up and started to pace the room. He knew he couldn't hide anything from Lily. She knew him too well.

"I just feel guilty that while everyone else is out there fighting and dying, or probably worse, to stop Voldemort, I'm sitting here doing nothing," he said.

Lily gave him a hard look, "So you'd rather go out and fight than stay here and protect your son?"

"No!" James protested, then he cringed at his raised voiced and glanced over at Harry. Thankfully the boy hadn't even stirred. He sighed as he slumped against the wall, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses, "No, I don't. But, at the same time, I also want to fight, which just makes me feel even guiltier."

Lily sat there for a second and watched her husband. She had never seen him seem so exhausted before, not even after the incident at the Shrieking Shack back in school. This was harder on him than either of them had thought. She sighed.

"I know James, I know. It's just…"

_KRACK!_

They were both instantly on their feet, wands pointed at the nursery door.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," James said as he made his way to the door, "but I'll check it out. You stay here."

"James," Lily called, but he had already stepped out the door. She sighed, and then glanced over at Harry. She was surprised to find him awake and sitting up in his crib. He smiled at her, oblivious to any possible danger. Before she could say or do anything, she heard an explosion downstairs, followed by indistinct shouts. She could feel the magical bursts as spells were cast. Lily heard footsteps on the stairs shortly before James burst into the room, his right arm and gash above his eye bleeding.

"James!"

"He found us, Lily," James said, breathing heavily, "Voldemort found us."

She gasped, "But… how… Peter…"

James shook his head, "That doesn't matter right now. The barrier spell I cast won't hold long. When he comes up the stairs, I'll distract him. You grab Harry and run. Take a broom, floo powder, disapparate, I don't care, just go!"

Lily barely had time to comprehend what James was saying when they heard a shattering sound coming from down the stairs. With a determined look on his face, James turned towards the door. Lily grabbed his arm.

"James, wait! There has…" Lily was cut off as James kissed her, fiercely and deeply. He pulled back and looked into her green eyes for the last time.

"I love you, you and Harry, always and forever," he said before he turned and ran out the door.

"James!" Lily yelled, but she knew she was too late. The tell-tale flash of green was enough to tell her what happened. As silent tears came to her eyes, she turned to grab Harry and make their escape.

"_Immobulus!"_

Lily froze, mere inches from grabbing Harry, despair filling her heart. She knew that voice.

"Now, now. We can't be having you leaving with the guest of honor," came the hissing voice of the Dark Lord, "Not before I can… pay my respects."

Lily felt her body being pulled into an upright position, arms straight at her side and legs locked together. As she was turned around, her gaze fell upon the inhuman visage of Lord Voldemort, the most powerful Dark Wizard since Grindelwald.

"Please," she pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper, "please don't do this. He's just a baby."

"Ah, but alas, I have to," Voldemort said with a grin made all the more evil by his appearance, "I can't have young Harry growing to oppose me, now can I?"

"Please," Lily continued, "take my life instead, just don't hurt my baby."

Voldemort turned to glare at her, "Don't tempt me, woman. Feel lucky I even decided to heed the plea to let you live."

"Please..."

"Bah, I don't have time for this. I have a child to kill," the Dark Lord said, flicking his wand toward the wall. With a violent jerk, Lily was flung sideways, her head smashing into the wall before she crumpled to the floor. She tried to force herself up, to stop Voldemort, but as the darkness closed in around her, the last thing Lily Potter remembered was a flash of green light, an inhuman scream, and her baby crying.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 2

Nothing could keep it out. As long as there was a tiny gap, an opening of some kind, it would find its way through. There, in one of the upper windows, that was its way in. Once entered, it slowly made its way across the open, though slightly cluttered floor, to the room's lone occupant. Nothing could keep it out, everyone would be its prey. It struck.

Harry Potter let out a sleepy groan as the light from a gap in the curtains fell across his face. Groggily, he rolled over, determined to sleep for as long as he could. It was summer vacation, and his birthday, so there was nothing in this universe that could get him up before he wanted to.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Except for an irate mother, that is. Harry quickly shot out of bed, nearly tripping over the tangle of sheets at his feet. After fumbling with his glasses for a second, he exited his bedroom and made his way to the stairs. What he found when he reached them did not bode well in Harry's mind. Standing at the bottom with her arms crossed and tapping her foot was his mother, Lily. That was never good. And she had her wand in hand. That was even worse.

"Well," she said as he reached the foot of the stairs, gesturing into the kitchen, "Do you have anything to say about this?"

Obviously confused about what she was referring to, Harry looked into the kitchen, and then had to bit his tongue to keep from laughing out loud. There, sitting at the counter, was his little sister Alexandria, or Alex as she liked to be called, her once calm and dark auburn hair now a very vibrant pink and standing straight up. Obviously, judging by the way Alex had crossed her arms as she turned away, Harry hadn't quite been able to hide his amusement.

"Well?" his mother asked, reminding him of the situation.

"I didn't have anything to do with it, honest." Lily gave an exasperated sigh as she stepped past Harry into the kitchen.

"You may have not done it on purpose," she said as she waved her wand at her daughter, causing Alex's hair to return to normal, "But I know you remember me explaining accidental magic to you. Add that to the fact that you were upset with your sister last night and that is the result you get."

Harry grimaced. He knew his mother was right, plus it was a pretty silly reason as to why he had been upset with her. She hadn't deserved what happened.

"Sorry, Alex," he said, as he sat down at the counter nearby. His sister gave him an appraising look, and then smiled.

"It's okay Harry, I know you didn't truly mean it," she gave him a sheepish grin, "It's not like I haven't done the same, you know."

Harry did know, all too well in fact. He once made a mistake of laughing at Alex when, on one of her many walks in the wooded area behind the house, she had wandered into some poison oak. The next thing Harry knew, his entire body itched and he was covered with a rash from head to toe. It was not a pleasant experience.

As she set their breakfasts in front of them, Lily couldn't help but smile at her children. Harry and Alex had always been close; mostly because of how close they are in age, though it was in part due to other factors. As often as they argued, which, being siblings meant quite often, neither of them could stay mad at the other for long. Even after the worse incidents, usually similar to the one that happened this morning, it wouldn't take them long to forgive and forget. Of course, the fact that they knew these incidents were caused by accidental magic helped, she was sure. More than once she recalled that she and her sister, Petunia, would row for hours because of similar situations, not knowing magic was the cause. As depressing as thinking of her sister could be, Lily couldn't help but laugh when she remembered a time when Petunia had woken up with lime green hair.

"What's so funny mum?" Harry asked over a mouthful of bacon. Alex rolled her eyes and cuffed him in the back of his head.

"Don't speak with your mouth full."

"And you don't hit your brother," Lily scolded as she sat down with her own breakfast.

"Sorry mum," Alex said, "So what were you thinking about?"

"I was just remembering a time when I accidentally turned your Aunt Petunia's hair lime green. She had gone on and on about how perfect blonde hair was compared to red. I was so mad I was probably as red _as_ my hair. And then the next morning, poof, her 'perfect' blonde hair was green," Lily smiled wistfully, "At the time we didn't know about magic, so she thought it was me. Petunia didn't talk to me for three days, about as long as it took her to wash it out of her hair."

"Mum?" Harry asked tentatively, he knew this was a touchy subject for his mother, "Are we, um… are we ever going to meet the rest of our family?"

Lily sighed. She should have know this question was coming. It usually did when she brought up her sister.

"I don't know, Harry," Lily said in all honestly, "My sister and I didn't part on the best of terms the last time I saw her. There are times when I think I have her convinced to come for a visit, but…

"Anyway," Lily said, not wanting to continue that particular conversation, "Enough of this depressing banter. I have a cake to make, so the two of you make yourself scarce from my kitchen."

"You know mum," Alex said, as she and Harry put there dishes in the sink "You could just use magic to make the cake, it wouldn't take nearly as long, or make nearly as big of a mess."

"But half the fun of baking is the mess," her mother said with a grin, "Besides, magic's for the clean-up.

"Now out!" Lily said as she gave her two children a gentle push with her wand.

________

When he heard the doorbell ring a few hours later, Harry knew exactly who it was. After shouting out that he would get the door, he quickly made his way down the stairs from his room where he had been reading his copy of _Quidditch through the Ages. _Normally, he would have been sitting in the living room reading, but the guests they were expecting were non-magical people, or Muggles, so having any references to magic laying about was a big no-no, in fact he and Alex had spent the last few hours scouring the ground floor for anything that could be seen as non-Muggle.

He had barely opened the door when a mop of curly brown hair came rushing towards him as his best, and probably only real friend, Hermione Granger gave him a big hug. Harry had to laugh at her enthusiasm as he hugged her back; it had only been a few days since he last saw her.

"Happy birthday, Harry," Hermione said as she released him.

"Thanks Hermione," Harry said with a smile. He turned to welcome the other two guests as Hermione moved to hug Alex, who had just entered the entryway.

"Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger," he said, "Thanks again for coming. I know you tend to be busy with your practice and all."

"Nonsense Harry," Mr. Granger said as his wife leaned over to give Harry a much gentler hug than her daughter had, "We wouldn't miss this for the world."

As Harry led them into the sitting room, his mother was coming in from the other entryway, Harry's gifts, or at least the gifts he could open at the moment, in her arm. She smiled at the Grangers as she set down the gifts. Hermione and Alex were already sitting on one of the couches, talking.

"Emma, Daniel," She said as she hugged them each in turn, "It's good to see you again."

"You too, Lily," Emma Granger said as she and her husband sat down across from her daughter, "We really should get together more often than we do."

"I know, but between your practice and my consulting, I was surprised that we could even get together for this," Lily said, "But enough talk. Harry, how about you open your presents and then we can have some cake."

Harry smiled and did as he was asked. It only took a few minutes, but in the end of it he had gotten some sweets from both Mr. and Mrs. Granger (sugar free, of course), a new history book from Hermione on battle tactics of British generals throughout history, Alex had gotten him the Risk board game, and his mother had gotten him a glass chess set. Harry smiled. Earlier in the year, probably shortly after his last birthday, Harry had began having an interest in tactics and strategy, so he was glad his gifts reflected that.

After cleaning up all the wrapping paper, it was time for cake and ice cream. It was then, as Mr. Granger was telling of a rather embarrassing situation in which two teens had gotten their braces stuck together when they kissed, that a letter came spinning out of the fireplace and landed on the coffee table. Rather thick, made of yellowish parchment, with the address written in emerald-green ink, Lily knew instantly that it was Harry's Hogwarts acceptance letter. She put head in her hand, suppressing the urge to groan, missing the significant look that Mr. and Mrs. Granger shared. Now she had to either come up with an explanation of why that would happen, or maybe even be forced to _Obliviate…_

"You got one too?!" Hermione squealed, her excitement palpable to everyone in the room.

"What?" Lily asked confusion clearly evident on her face.

"I know what that is!" Hermione said, her smile threatening to split her face in two.

"And what would that be, dear?" Lily asked carefully, trying not to hope. She couldn't be that lucky, could she?

"It's the acceptance letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Oh, Harry," she said as she jumped across the couch to hug her friend, "this is so great! Now I can tell you all I've found out about a thing called the wizarding world!"

It took a moment for Lily to fully comprehend what Hermione had said with as fast as she was talking. When she did, she couldn't help but laugh, catching everyone's attention.

"Oh thank Merlin," she said as she slumped down in her chair, "Now I won't have to come up with some silly excuse or even _Obliviate_ you."

"_Obliviate?_," Mrs. Granger said startled, "Good heavens. What does that mean? Nothing horrible, is it?"

"Nothing of the sort, the name of the spell sounds far worse than what it does," Lily said as she sat up, "It's just a charm that erases parts of a person's memory, or more specifically, it would have been your memory of seeing Harry's letter."

"Wait," Hermione said as she let go of Harry, "Spell? Charm? Does that mean that…?" Hermione looked quickly between Harry and Lily.

"Yes," Lily said with a smile, pulling her wand from where she hid it behind her back, "Thirteen year ago, I graduated from the very same school that both you and Harry will be attending in the fall."

Harry couldn't help but grin at the shocked expression on Hermione's face. "I've actually know about the wizarding world most of my life. In fact, why don't Alex and I show you some of the books and other items we have in our rooms?"

As her children lead a still pleasantly shocked Hermione upstairs, Lily turned toward the other two people still in the room, obviously shocked as well, but smiling. A good sign.

"When did she get her letter?"

"About a week ago," Mr. Granger said, setting his bowl of ice cream on the table, "A Professor Flitwick came to talk to us about Hermione being a witch, where to go to get her supplies, and the like." Lily smiled.

"Yes, Filius would make a good choice if Albus or Minerva couldn't do it themselves," she said as she leaned back and got comfortable, "Now, even though I'm sure he answered most of your question, I'm sure you have plenty more now that you've had time to process that information."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 3

"Thanks again for doing this, Mrs. Potter," Hermione said as she, Harry, and Alex followed Lily through the streets of London.

"It's nothing, really," Lily said with a dismissive wave of her hand, though she did smile back towards the girl, "I remember how much of a nightmare it was for my parents to get the proper funding. I nearly missed the train my third year because of it."

Harry had to smile. The 'proper funding' was what his mother always said in public when she was referring to the currency used by the Wizarding World. Instead of the paper money used by Muggles, the Wizarding World used three coins; Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. The problem for Muggle-borns, wizard and witches born to Muggle parents, like Hermione and his mother, was that they had to exchange Muggle money for wizarding money in order to buy what they needed for school.

Exchanging the money itself wasn't the problem, it was the amount of paperwork needed to exchange that money. Add to the fact that every time the Galleon/Pound exchange rate changed, the paperwork would need to be redone and re-filed. Harry was all too glad that he never really had to deal with that. His mother had two different bank accounts, one Muggle and one Wizard, so they never had to worry about exchanges and the like.

"So, mum, where are we going again?" Alex asked.

"A place called the Leaky Cauldron," Lily said, "It's one of the few places where you can get into Diagon Alley from main street London. It should be just up ahead."

And it was, though whatever they had all been expecting, it wasn't this. It was just a tiny, grubby-looking pub, set between a book shop and a record store. Harry probably even wouldn't have noticed it if his mother hadn't brought it to his attention when she opened the door to usher in the three children. Inside wasn't much better than the outside, being rather dark and shabby. As his attention was on the bar, he hadn't realized that the girls had stopped until he bumped into them.

"Oi, what's the big…" whatever he was going to say died at the tip of his tongue. Sitting at the bar, taking up at least three stools, was a giant of a man. The man was turned away from Harry, so he couldn't see his face, not that he could have anyway considering the shaggy mane of hair and wild tangled beard he seemed to have.

"Hagrid!" Harry heard his mother call as she brushed past him and the girls. The large man turned at the sound of his name, and even through the beard Harry could see that his face brightened at seeing Lily.

"Saints be praised! Lily Potter" Hagrid exclaimed as he got up and engulfed Lily in a massive hug, "I 'aven't seen you in ages."

Lily couldn't help but laugh as she felt herself be picked up with ease, "It's good to see you again, Hagrid. Though I am surprised to see you here, I figured you would be getting ready for the start of term."

"Got myself a special job from Dumbledore 'imself," Hagrid beamed at her as he put her down, "How 'bout yourself?"

"I was in need of a trip to the apothecary, among other reasons" Lily said with a smile as she turned toward the door, "Come on you three, I have someone to introduce you to."

Harry, Alex, and Hermione slowly made their way over to where Lily and Hagrid were standing, still somewhat intimidated by the size of the man.

"Kids, this is Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts," Lily introduced him when the three of them finally got closer, "Hagrid, this is Harry and Alex, my children, and this is Hermione Granger, a friend of theirs. She'll be starting her first year at Hogwarts with Harry this fall."

"'As it been that long a'ready," Hagrid said with a smile, "Las' time I saw yer, Harry, you was just a baby. Look just like yer da, you do, though you got yer mother's eyes."

Harry gave a wistful smile. The few times he had met people who knew his father, they always would say the same thing.

"But you little lady," Hagrid said as he turned toward Alex, "are the spittin' image of yer, mother. And as perty to boot."

Both Alex and her mother blushed as the later smacked the giant man playfully on the arm, "Oh hush, you shameless flirt."

Hagrid chuckled before turning his attention to Hermione, "Happy to 'ave a friend startin' with ya?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, Mr. Hagrid, I am, especially since I'm just learning about your world."

"Bah, none o' this mister stuff, jus' call me Hagrid," he said in dismissal before giving her an appraising look, "So, yer a Muggle-Born. I'd not worry too much 'bout that, some o' the best wizards and witches to come out of Hogwarts 'ave been Muggle-Born. Like Lily 'ere."

This caused Lily to blush again, so she smacked him on the arm again before brandishing her wand, "I said hush, you. Do you _want_ me to hex you?"

"Nononono," Hagrid said, waving his hands infront of him, "We don't need non' o' that." Harry couldn't help but smirk at the sight of the giant of a man cowering in front of a woman nearly half his size. Judging by the giggles he heard from Alex and Hermione, they found the sight amusing as well. Lily smiled and put her wand away.

------

Sometime later, the Potter family as well as Hermione and Hagrid exited from Gringotts. Both Harry and Alex were beaming from the experience of riding the rail-carts, though Hermione and Hagrid both looked a bit green.

"Hey, Mum, do think we can do that again?" Alex asked excitedly, Harry nodding in agreement. Hermione grimaced and Hagrid looked like he was going ill at the mere thought.

"Maybe some other time, dear," Lily said as she made her way through the crowd towards Madam Malkin's. She glanced at Harry and Hermione, "Now, I'm gonna drop the two of you off here while I head over to the apothecary's. Hopefully it won't take me too long, so I'll meet you back here. Alex, why don't you take Hagrid back to the pub, he's still looking a little green."

They all nodded, Hagrid being ever so grateful, and all went their separate ways. When Harry and Hermione entered Madam Malkin's, a witch looked up from where she was and smiled at them.

"Hogwarts?" she asked before they could say anything. They both nodded, "got the lot here. Come in back and we'll get you fitted."

Madam Malkin led the two of them into the back where another witch was waiting. After standing them on a couple of stools, the witches quickly tossed a couple of long robes over them and quickly began to pin the right length. After a few minutes of small talk, Madam Malkin declared that they were finished and that all of their robes would be done within the hour.

As they made their way to the front, they saw a boy with a pale, pointed face standing rather impatiently at the counter.

"Hello, dear," Madam Malkin greeted, "back again for something?"

"You gave me the wrong set of robes," the boy said as he placed a box on the counter, "these are much too large."

"Oh I'm sorry, dear," Madam Malkin said as she took the box and handed it to her assistant, "Must have mixed up the orders by accident…Ah, here we go. I've got them right here."

"Yes, well, be more careful next time," the boy said as he was handed what was presumably the correct set of robes, "You're lucky my father is away on business and isn't around to find out about this or he would be most displeased with your service. I'm sure you've heard what happens when he's… displeased."

As Madam Malkin paled slightly, Harry couldn't help but frown at the boy's comment. On one hand, what he said sounded like it was some sort of loosely veiled threat, and it quite possibly was meant to be one. But there was something about his demeanor that almost, _almost_, made it sound like it was just what it seemed; a simple statement. It was like the boy couldn't decide whether to be pompous or polite.

The boy turned towards the door, tucking the box under his arm. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to the fact that someone else was walking in the door as he was trying to exit.

"Ug…" grunted the person walking in as she lost her balance and fell on her behind.

"Oof…" the boy said as he stumbled backwards, barely keeping his own balance.

"Hey! Why don't you watch… Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't watching where I was going," the boy said as he offered his hand to whomever he had bumped into. Wondering who it could be that could make the boy change his tone so quickly, Harry shifted slightly to see out the store front. Much to his surprise, he saw Alex being pulled onto her feet, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"No, no, it's my fault," Alex said, not realizing she hadn't let go of the offered hand yet, "I was in a hurry and…"

"Nonsense," the boy started before realizing that he hadn't let go of her hand, either. Quickly the released their hold, Alex's blush darkening just slightly, and his own cheeks became a little rosy as well. Before either of them could say anything, a blonde haired woman called out what must have been the boy's name. He looked over her shoulder before looking back at Alex.

"Well, I'd better go. If you'll excuse me."

"Of-Of course," Alex said as she stepped away from the door, allowing the boy to pass. She continued to watch him until she heard a very familiar giggle coming from behind her. Alex turned to find her brother with a lopsided grin on his face while Hermione was standing just behind him, giggling into her hand.

"What?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"I think someone just developed a bit of a crush," Harry said.

"I have not," Alex said, though she couldn't quite look him in the eye. Harry's grin widened.

"Sure you don't. Nice blush, by the way, matches your hair," Harry said. He couldn't help but tease his sister. Alex looked away, blush returning to her face, before she looked him in the eye and shot him a glare that promised divine retribution should he continue. Harry smartly changed the subject.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Mum's having some trouble getting some of the more exotic ingredients she needs than she thought," Alex answered, "So she handed me a few Galleons to pay for your robes and told us to meet her at the book store."

As they entered _Flourish and Blotts_, Harry knew that he would probably have a hard time pulling his friend away, judging from the gleam he caught in her eye. Sure enough, when Lily found them later, not only did Hermione have the books she would need for their classes, but a few extras like _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century _and _Modern Magical History, _just to name a few. In fact, Harry was sure that if they had stayed any longer than they had, she probably would have walked out with half the store, never mind the fact that she would have no way to carry them all, let alone pay for them.

"Did you know that the ceiling of the great hall is bewitched to look like the sky outside?" Hermione said sometime later as they made there way to get their wands, her nose buried in her copy of _Hogwarts: a History_. Even as long as he's known her, Harry still had to marvel at how she could do that and not run into anything.

"No, Hermione, I didn't know that," Harry said absently. Had he actually been paying attention to her, Harry would have realized that he, in fact, did know that. But he was distracted by the prospect of getting his wand. As far back as he could remember, he had always wanted a wand. He even went as far as to borrow his mother's once when he was seven (which, incidentally, led to his longest grounding on record when he subsequently negated all the colors in the living room, turned it upside down, and made it vanish respectively). To Harry, obtaining a wand was like a rite of passage in the Wizarding World, a sign to everyone that 'Yes, I'm an adult now, please treat me as such.' Of course, that all really comes only after seven years of schooling, but that was beside the point.

Approaching the store, Harry could see a single wand lying on a faded purple cushion, the sign overhead read _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382__BC__. _Harry wasn't sure what he expected when he entered the store, but what he saw wasn't it. It was a tiny place with thousands of tiny boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. To Harry, it almost seemed the air itself was filled with some sort of secret magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped, though he was unsure whether it was because of the voice, or because both Hermione and Alex screamed. Either way, his heart had decided that escaping his chest was in order.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ollivander," Lily said fondly to an old man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Lilly Potter," Mr. Ollivander said after he turned to her, "Seems only yesterday you were hear buying your first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice for charms work, wasn't it?"

"Yes it is," Lily answered, "Now I'm here to get my son Harry's, and his friend Hermione's wands."

"Ah yes, I though I'd be seeing you soon, Mr. Potter, as well as you Ms. Granger. Now, let us see which wand you favor," said Mr. Ollivander as he turned toward the stack of boxes, "Well, really it's the wand that favors you.

"Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of a dragon," he said as he began taking down boxes, "No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand.

"Right then, let's try a few. Since it's always proper to let the lady go first, Ms. Granger, if you would be so kind as to give this wand a wave," Mr. Ollivander said handing Hermione a wand.

For several minutes, Hermione tried many different wands, each to no effect. Finally, after what seemed like forever in Harry's mind, she finally found a wand that reacted to her touch; vine, ten and three quarter inches, with a dragon heartstring core. A good all around wand, as Mr. Ollivander said. Finally it was Harry's turn to try for his wand. Though he didn't think it was possible, it seemed to take him even longer to find a wand, but the longer it took him, the happier it actually seemed to make Mr. Ollivander. Harry was just about to give up hope of ever finding a wand when he felt a sudden warmth in his fingers from the wand he now gripped. He gave it a flick and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end.

"Oh, very good. Unusual combination that one; holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple. Though I must say, it is a bit curious," Mr. Ollivander said, as he replaced Harry's wand in its box and wrapped it in brown paper.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ollivander, but what's curious?" Alex asked, finally distracted from the pile of wands.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Ms. Potter. The phoenix whose tail feather resides in your brother's wand gave just one other feather; thirteen and a half inches, yew, powerful, very powerful. I find it curious that you, Mr. Potter, are destined for this wand, when its brother gave you that scar."

As the three Potters visibly paled, Hermione was curious. Harry had never mentioned how he had received his scar; in fact his entire family was careful to avoid any questions she had had about it. Before she could ask anything, the entire mood of the shop changed as the door chimed.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid!" Mr. Ollivander exclaimed as Hagrid stepped into the store, "How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

-----

After bidding farewell to Hagrid, the Potters and Hermione settled in for dinner at the Leaky Cauldron before heading back home. As Lily told the children about her time in Hogwarts, Hermione sat quietly stroking Crookshanks, her new pet cat. Before he left, Hagrid had insisted that he buy Harry a late birthday present, and then since he couldn't 'in good conscious' as he put it, get Harry something and not get her or Alex a pet, they both got to choose a pet as well.

Harry had received a beautiful snowy owl, which currently was pretending to be asleep when Harry tried to feed her, but quickly took the food when he wasn't looking. Alex, wanting something different and unique, picked out a creature called a Jarvey; it looked like an overgrown ferret to Hermione. Their mother was reluctant at first, considering a Jarvey can have rather negative language, but the clerk at _Magical Menagerie _had been quick to show that this one had been trained for positive responses ("At least to those he likes," the man had later whispered to her and Alex.) She still found it rather amusing that amidst Lily's stories a small 'here, here,' or a 'bloody good show' would come from the creature draped over Alex's shoulders while eating a peace of her ham steak.

But even while all this was going on, Hermione still had what Mr. Ollivander had said about Harry's wand and scar. What exactly had he meant? She had noticed how others had reacted when first meeting Harry. They would treat him with reverence and wonder, and their eyes would always find a way to his scar. Why was that? What was so important about it? Finally, her curiosity got the best of her.

"Mrs. Potter?" Hermione interrupted reluctantly, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, dear," Lily said as she cut off another peace of her ham steak, "What would you like to know?"

Hermione paused for a second before asking, "What did Mr. Ollivander mean today? About Harry's scar and what not?"

All three Potters froze as soon as the question was asked, and Hermione felt horrible for asking it. Obviously this was a touchy subject for them all.

"I'm sorry," she began, hoping she hadn't upset them too much, "I shouldn't have asked, it was stupid…"

"No," Lily said, cutting off Hermione's apology, though with far more force than she had meant to use since she saw all three children jump. "No, it wasn't a stupid question, Hermione, far from it in fact. And seeing as you've become a part of this world, it's probably best that you hear the truth from someone you trust rather then some embellishment of a stranger. But in order to tell you about Harry's scar, we have to start a few years before that.

"I'm not going to go into a lot of details, for I'm sure you'll hear more about it in school, but almost twenty years ago a wizard, a very dark wizard by the name of Voldemort, came to power and tried to overthrow the Ministry of Magic. Some eight years later, this war was still going on and, feeling that we needed to do something, James and I joined a group of witches and wizards that were working apart from the ministry to stop him. A few more years passed, and for reasons I'm not quite sure of, the two of us went into hiding shortly after Harry was born. Unfortunately, we were betrayed by someone we thought was a close friend.

"On Halloween night, 1980, Voldemort arrived at our house. He… killed James while he tried to give me time to grab Harry and escape. It wasn't enough. Voldemort immobilized me and then threw me into a wall, knocking me unconscious. From what I've been told, he had tried to kill Harry, but the curse rebounded and killed Voldemort instead, leaving Harry with only the scar you see on his forehead."

Lily wiped the tears that had been forming in her eyes before she continued, "As for the reason everyone looks at Harry the way they do, it's because no one has every survived the curse that Voldemort used except for him. Because of that fact, and the fact that he was part of the reason that nearly a decade of fear and oppression suddenly came to an end, my son is probably the most famous person in the wizarding world."

"So how did you deal with that?" Hermione asked after a moment of silence.

"I took the advice of an old friend," Lily answered, "He said it would probably be best that I keep Harry as far from his celebrity as I could. So I found a nice little town with a low population of witches and wizards and moved there telling almost no one about it. It's only been in the last few years that I've started to reconnect with this world."

"But still, it must be difficult sometimes, with all the stares and the whispers."

"It's not me or mum that get stared at," Alex said with a shrug (the Jarvey grumbled a bit at being jostled), "Harry's the one whose has to deal with it when we go out."

"I just tend to try and ignore it," Harry said when Hermione turned to him expectantly, "Doesn't always work, but what can you do? People will see what they want to see.

"Personally I think it's stupid to make such a fuss over me," he continued, "I mean, the way _some_ people talk about me, they make it sound like I defeated him in a duel, without a wand, at three months of age," Hermione couldn't help but giggle; the image was a bit absurd, "I was barely old enough to roll over, how the Bloody Hell would I be able to pull that off?"

"Watch your language," Lily warned.

"Sorry, Mum," Harry said, "All I'm saying is that I'm nothing special. I'm just Harry, nothing more, nothing less."

"It's a good thing he thinks that, too," Alex said as she handed her Jarvey another piece of meat, "He has got a big enough ego when it comes to his flying, I don't think he'd be able to fit in the house were he to think he was Merlin's gift to wizards."

"Hey!" Harry shouted indignantly. Hermione giggled.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm going with him to Hogwarts this year, I can help deflate his ego enough to fit it into the school dorms."

"Hermione," Harry whined.

"That's enough you two," Lily admonished the two girls, "The dorms there are plenty big for Harry and his ego."

"Mum!"


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 4

"Honestly, Harry," Alex said as the three Potters made their way through King's Cross Station, "Did you have to pick today of all days to sleep in?"

Harry flushed in embarrassment as he pushed his trolley behind her and his mother, "Shut up, Alex, I couldn't sleep."

"Then you should have had mum make you up a sleeping draught," Alex snapped, "I was up half the night listening to you toss and turn."

"Well then you probably should have asked mum for a silencing ward on your walls," Harry snapped back.

"That's enough, both of you," Lily said, cutting off any further argument, "We'll be fine as long as we don't dilly-dally."

Quickly the three of them made their way through King's Cross Station to Platform 9 ¾ where the Hogwarts Express waited to bring all the students back to Hogwarts, or for those like Harry, bring them there for the first time. As Harry followed his mother and sister, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he glanced down, a sigh escaped his lips as he recognized what he saw. He maneuvered his trolley nearby, scooped it up, and placed it in his jacket pocket.

"I can't believe he lost you again," Harry muttered to himself as he began to push the trolley again. He had only gone a few feet when he realized he had a problem.

His family was nowhere to be found.

Harry frantically looked around, hoping that he would spot them, but to no avail. He started to panic when he realized that his mum hadn't told him how to get onto the platform, that he was stuck on this side. As the thought of what could happen when he missed the train began to form in his mind, Harry did his best to push his anxiety aside. He shouldn't worry, once his mum realized that he wasn't behind them, she'd come looking. Even if he did miss the train, he was sure that they…

"…packed with Muggles, of course…"

Harry swung around, his entire train of thought interrupted. The speaker was a plump woman who was holding the hand of a girl probably around Alex's age. She was speaking to at least one of the four boys following her, each of them pushing trunks similar to his. One even had an owl. All of them had flaming red hair.

The woman instructed the oldest boy, Percy if Harry heard the name right, to go first. He was watching intently, but a group of passing tourists blocked his view. Next he watched one of the twins go, (after he had convinced his mother that he was the other twin), quickly followed by the other. Both just seemed to disappear, and he still didn't have a clue as to how. Harry decided that watching wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.

"Hullo, dear. First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too," She said as she pointed to the last, the youngest boy. Harry gave him a brief smile and nod before he answered.

"Yes, I am," answered Harry, "The problem is that my mum never told me how to get on the platform."

"Oh, here by yourself, dear?" the woman asked, her motherly instincts kicking in.

"Oh no," Harry quickly reassured her, "we just got separated. My own fault, really."

"Well, not to worry," she said, relieved he wasn't by himself, "You just need to walk straight toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run, if you're nervous."

"Good luck," the little girl said. He gave her a thankful smile, causing the girl to blush a deep red and hide behind her mother.

Harry turned toward the barrier and, taking a deep breath, began to run directly towards it. Though a little voice in his head screamed that he was going to crash, Harry kept right on going. He closed his eyes just before hitting the barrier, but the horrendous crash didn't come. Opening his eyes, he smiled. In front of him a scarlet steam engine waited next to the platform. He had made it.

"Harry!"

Harry turned to find his mother and Alex waving him over.

"What on earth took you so long?" Lily asked as her son arrived next to them, "We've been waiting at least a good ten minutes."

"Sorry mum, I was going to come, but someone forgot to tell me how to get onto the platform from the station," Harry responded, giving his mother a little grin.

"Nonsense, of course I told…," Lily trailed off, blushing slightly when she realized that she had, in fact, not mentioned how to enter the platform. She cleared her throat, doing her best to ignore the giggle coming from her daughter and the smirk on her son's face, "So, how did you get onto the platform?"

"A very nice witch told me how."

"Well, you're going to have show me who she was so I can thank her," Lily said with a smile, "Now, you better go and get your trunk on the train, I remember how fast those compartments fill. Alex, you can give him a hand, I'm going to see if I can find the Grangers. Merlin knows that they could probably use a familiar face at the moment."

After giving Harry a goodbye hug and kiss, just in case the train left before he could find her again; his mother went off to search for his best friend's parents. Finding an empty compartment a few cars down, Harry and Alex tried to put his things on the train. However, even with the two of them, it was difficult getting his trunk up the stairs.

"Blimey, Harry," Alex grunted after their latest attempt, "What did you do, pack your entire _room_ in this thing?"

"Want a hand?" Harry turned to find one of the red-headed twins from earlier.

"That would be much appreciated, thank you," he said, Alex nodding in agreement.

With a quick call to his twin, the two of them helped Harry and Alex get Harry's trunk tucked away into a corner of an empty compartment. After being thanked for their help once again, the twins turned to leave until one of them noticed something out of the window.

"Oi, George," he called, "Who's that mum's giving a hug to?"

"Don't know," the other twin, George answered, "Maybe a relative? Not like we don't have plenty of those we don't know, and she does have red hair."

His curiosity peaked, Harry glanced out of the window himself to find that, much to his surprise, it was his mother that was being hugged.

"That's our mum," Alex said, before turning to leave the compartment, "I'm going to see what this is about. Have a good first year, Harry."

"Oi, Alex!" Harry shouted, starting after her, "Tell mum she's the witch that helped me, and I'd better get on owl explaining this!"

"Sisters," he mumbled after he turned back into the compartment, running his hand through his hair. Of course, this pushed his bangs back enough to show his scar.

"What's that?" one of the twins asked suddenly, pointing at Harry's forehead.

"Blimey," said the other twin, "Are you…?"

"He _is_," said the first twin, "Aren't you?"

Harry just rolled his eyes; he should have expected this reaction.

"Yes, I am," he said with a resigned sigh.

The twins just gawped at him, and Harry resisted the urge to rub the bridge of his nose. If this is how everyone was going to react when he introduced himself, it was going to be a long year.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mum," one of the twins said, and with one last glance at Harry, both jumped off the train.

Harry just sighed again before he glanced at his watch. He had a few minutes before the train left, so he followed the twins off the train. But before he could step off the train, he heard his name being called out. He turned to see his bushy-haired friend winding her way through the crowded hall.

"There you are, Harry," Hermione said as she reached him, quickly grabbing his hand and pulling him after her, "Come on, you've got to help me with my trunk. It's too heavy to move myself."

"Well, if you didn't pack so many books, it probably wouldn't be all that heavy," he teased as he allowed himself to be dragged along.

"I'll have you know that I didn't bring nearly as many books as I wanted to, thank you very much."

"Just half again as more than you needed, right?" Harry cheekily replied, a grin forming on his lips. His friend's silence told him that he had hit close to the mark. His grin blossomed. He loved being right.

-----

He hated being right. By the time they had dragged her trunk back to the compartment he had claimed, he was tired and his arms felt like they were going to fall off.

"And I thought _my_ trunk was heavy," Harry said as he flopped down into his seat.

"I'm really sorry, Harry…" Hermione started, but Harry waved off her apology.

"If you're worried about me not saying goodbye to my family, don't be. I did that before I got on the train."

"Still…"

"Hermione," Harry cut her off as he sat up, "It's okay, really. Even if I didn't, I think they would understand considering I was helping you."

Before either of them could say anymore, the door to their compartment opened up to show a round-faced boy with a frantic look on his face. When he looked at Harry, he seemed to sag with relief.

"Oh thank Merlin I found you Harry," he said, "I need help finding Trevor again, I…"

Harry held up his hand to stop the boy from continuing. Before the boy could protest anymore, Harry reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a rather large toad.

"Honestly Neville," Harry said as he handed the boy his toad, "You need to get a leash on him or something."

The boy, Neville, gave Harry a small smile as he placed Trevor into the pocket of his robe. Hermione looked back and forth between the two boys, wondering how they knew each other. When Harry caught the confused look, he remembered that they hadn't been introduced.

"Hermione, this is Neville Longbottom, one of the few friends I have in the wizarding world." Harry said, "Neville, this is Hermione Granger."

"So you're his brilliant Muggle friend," Neville said with a smile as he held out his hand, "Though I guess you're not really a Muggle if you're here, are you?"

"A pleasure," she said, a bit flushed at the compliment she was given, "I'm curious as to how you seem to know Harry so well?"

Harry just shrugged as Neville took a seat next to Hermione, "We grew up together. I probably spent as much time at his place as I did at yours."

"But why?" Hermione asked, her inquisitive nature getting the better of her, "Your mum had mentioned that she tried to distance herself from the wizarding world as you grew up, even said she broke contact with a lot of close friends in order to do so. Why would she stay in contact with Neville's family?"

Harry glanced at Neville for a second before answering, "Let's just say that my mum felt she owed Neville's parents."

Hermione was about to ask what he meant, but Harry shook his head and nodded in Neville's direction. She glanced over to see that he was hanging his head and had a distant look in his eye. Mentally, Hermione cursed herself for, once again, asking one too many questions than she probably should have. As nosey as she knew she could be, she wondered sometimes why Harry and Alex were still her friends.

"Neville, I…" before she could say anything more, the door to the compartment opened revealing the youngest of the red-headed boys.

"Do you mind if I sit in here with you?" he asked a bit tentatively, "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure," Harry said, grateful for the interruption.

"Ron Weasley," he said, offering Harry his hand as he sat down.

"Harry Potter."

"So you really are Harry Potter, I mean _the _Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out, "And do you really have… well, you know?"

"You mean this?" Harry said, humoring him as he pulled back his bangs.

Ron stared at the scar for a while before he realized what he was doing and quickly looked away. He introduced himself to both Neville and Hermione before finally turning back to Harry.

"So I guess it really _was_ your family I met back at the platform."

Hermione gave him and incredulous look, "You met his family and yet you didn't believe it was him?"

"Yeah, well, it was kinda hard to believe, you know. I mean, the mother of _the _Harry Potter does not walk up to your mum and give her a hug like they're old friends. It just doesn't happen that way."

"But isn't that exactly what did happen?" Hermione asked. Ron blushed slightly as he realized the foolishness of what he had just explained.

"Well it shouldn't be like that," Ron mumble, looking away.

"Don't worry, Ron," Harry said, deciding to save the red-head from any further embarrassment, "You're not the first person not to realize the obvious. To be honest, very few people who have met my mother or sister have actually believed that they were related to me until they saw me with them."

Ron gave Harry a little grin, "Guess being related to you could be pretty difficult, couldn't it?"

"Not as bad as being me, let me tell you," and so Harry did. He told Ron everything about being 'The-Boy-Who-Lived.' About all the stares, the whispers, about being almost constantly harassed when people realized who he was. Through it all, Ron sat wide eyed. Even Neville and Hermione were astounded at what Harry had to say, even if they had already heard or seen a little bit of what it was like. Everyone was silent after Harry finished his rant, before Ron finally spoke.

"Blimey," he said, "I guess being famous isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"I don't think I would mind it nearly as much if I actually did what everyone said I had," Harry replied, "Sure I survived, but nobody knows how. Now if someone could tell me how, then I could tell you if I deserve to be famous or not."

Their conversation drifted shortly there after to more mundane topics, like which Quidditch team each liked ("Chudley Cannons all the way mate"), what their classes would be like, who would be in what house, and the like. At some point, the snack trolley had come by and everyone had gotten something off the cart (Ron tried to decline, but neither Harry nor Neville would hear it. Even Hermione bought a few extra items she knew she wouldn't probably eat). Soon the topic of what Hogwarts would truly be like came up, and Hermione started to explain everything she had learned about the school.

As she continued on her long tirade, Ron stared at her in a way akin to shock. He didn't even realize that he had opened another chocolate frog; it had almost leapt out the window before Harry caught it. Neville was starting to dose off. Ron leaned over to Harry a few minutes later.

"Is she mental or something?" Ron asked, still unable to look away.

Harry chuckled.

"Nah, she just gets this way when she's nervous," he leaned forward and took a deep breath.

"Hermione!"

It had its desired effect (plus one extra as a startled Neville fell off his seat) as the girl in question stopped in mid sentence. She looked at Harry wondering why he had interrupted her, and then flushed brightly as she realized what she had been doing.

"I did it again, didn't I?" she asked in a small voice, hiding behind her hair.

"It's okay, I understand. But just relax, everything will be fine, just you watch," Harry said, giving her a reassuring smile.

She gave him a small smile in return, and then she opened a box of what looked like jelly beans and popped in into her mouth and chewed. Hermione quickly gagged, almost spitting out what she had eaten.

"Yuck!" she exclaimed, "Why does it taste like I just ate dirt."

"Probably because you did," Ron said, laughing a little, "Should have warned you before, but when they say every flavor, they mean every flavor. George reckons he got a bogey-flavored one once."

Hermione seemed to pale slightly and set the box down next to her.

"Ron, I've been meaning to ask, but, what's that lump in you pocket?"

"Oh, that," Ron said, a little dejected, "It's just Scabbers."

"Scabbers?" Neville asked.

"My pet rat," Ron said as he pulled a fat grey sleeping rat, "He's useless, really. All he ever does is sleep."

"Um, Ron," Harry said as he glanced around the compartment, suddenly nervous, "You might want to be careful with him."

"Why? He's not gonna do anything."

"He talking about Crookshanks, my pet cat," Hermione stated, causing Ron to quickly clutch Scabbers to him, looking around nervously, "You can relax, I didn't bring him with me this year. I thought it would be better to concentrate on school work my first year without having to worry about taking care of a pet."

Later, when conversational topics seem to dry up, each went to do their own thing. Neville had drifted off to sleep again, Trevor decided he wanted a higher viewpoint and was now sitting on his head, Hermione was reading one of her books, and Ron and Harry were going over the cards they had gotten from the Chocolate Frogs. About the time Ron was trying to trade Harry three Morgana for his Agrippa, the compartment door slid open.

Three boys entered, and both Harry and Hermione recognized the one in the middle: the pale boy from Madam Malkin's. He glanced around the compartment (Neville once again climbing back into his seat) before his eyes settled on Harry.

"Is it true?" he said, "The entire train is saying that Harry Potter is in this compartment. So it's you then?"

"Yes," Harry said evenly. He glanced at the other two boys. Both looked thickset and mean; they almost seemed like bodyguards standing on either side of the boy.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," the boy said, noticing where Harry was looking, "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Neville grinned a little behind his hand, and Ron coughed slightly, attempting to hide his snigger. Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my names funny do you? No need to really ask who you are. My father told me all Weasley's have red-hair, freckles, and hand-me-down robes."

He turned back to Harry after giving everyone else in the compartment another once over.

"You'll find some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand for Harry to shake, but Harry didn't take it.

"I think I can decide for myself who I want to be friends with," Harry said evenly, "Wrong sort or no."

Malfoy's lips twitched a little, though Harry couldn't tell if he was fighting back a frown or what.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," Malfoy said as evenly as Harry had, "Declining the wrong offer could get you into trouble someday. My father says hanging around riff-raff like the Weasleys can rub off on you."

Ron stood up, his face as red as his hair.

"Say that again," he said.

"Oh, you going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"Easy Ron," Harry said as he stood up and put his hand on his new friend's shoulder, "No one is going to fight anyone. But I suggest that the lot of you leave."

Malfoy shrugged.

"Suit yourself, Potter, but don't say I didn't warn you," he said as Crabbe and Goyle stepped out into the hall.

Malfoy stepped out as well, closing the compartment door after himself when he stopped and glanced down. Harry glanced down as well and froze. Sitting in the doorway was Trevor, obviously having fallen off Neville's head when he had awoken earlier. For a brief second, Harry thought the worst and figured Malfoy would slam the door on the poor toad, but to his surprise, he just pushed the toad in with his foot (maybe not too gently, but better than the alternative) and shut the door.

"I've heard of his family," Ron said darkly sometime after the three boys had left, "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"What about his mother?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged.

"Don't know. Probably about the same, I'd wager. Hate the lot of them, though," he said.

Harry nodded absently. From what little he had heard about him, Malfoy's father did sound rather unpleasant. But he wasn't sure about Malfoy himself. For all appearances, he seemed to be cut from the same cloth as his father.

But something in Harry's gut told him that he should reserve judgement on one Draco Malfoy.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 5

Not long after Malfoy and his cronies left, it was announced that the train would be reaching the school in a few minutes. After donning their robes, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville all crowded into the corridor along with the other students.

"So what do you think the sorting is gonna be like?" Neville asked as they shuffled along.

"I'm not sure," answered Harry, "I tried to ask my mum, but she wouldn't tell me. All she said was it was something you wouldn't expect."

"Fred and George told me that you had to wrestle a troll, but I'm pretty sure they were pulling my leg," Ron supplied, "though it is hard to tell sometimes, with those two."

"I tried to find information about it in '_Hogwarts: a History,'_" Hermione said as they made their way onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold and pulled his robes tighter around him."But all it said was that the founders had decided on a way to separate incoming students into each of the four houses after they were gone."

As Harry was about to ask his next question, he was interrupted when a voiced bellowed over the gathered crowd: "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there, Harry, Hermione?"

"We're alright, Hagrid," Harry answered when he saw Hagrid's big, hairy face over the sea of heads. Hermione waved.

"C'mon, follow me, any more firs-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

They followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path, slipping and stumbling most of the way. Harry heard Ron mumble a few choice words about the condition of the path as the redhead nearly tripped for the tenth time. Nobody spoke much, though Harry did warn Neville that Trevor was attempting to escape again at one point.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called after a while, 'Jus' round this bend here.'

There was a collected 'oooh' as the path opened on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling, was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry could see its many turrets and towers even from there.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called as he pointed to a group of boats on the shore. The foursome climbed into the boat nearest to them.

After Hagrid, who had a boat all to him self, made sure everyone was in, the boats moved off all at once across the smooth lake. When they reached the cliff on which the castle rested, Harry, along with all the other first years, ducked his head at Hagrid's warning. The boats drifted through an ivory curtain and into a dark tunnel beyond that seemed to take them under Hogwarts itself. Soon they reached a kind of underground harbor and clambered out of the boats onto the rocks. Hagrid quickly led them up a passageway in the rock and onto the damp grass in the shadow of the castle.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid asked as the first years crowded around the huge oak doors of the castle. When he got no reply to the contrary, he raised a massive fist and knocked on the door three times. They swung open at once, and a tall, black haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first impression was that she was not someone to cross.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I'll take them from here," McGonagall said as she opened the doors wider, "Follow me, children."

As Professor McGonagall led them into the Entrance Hall, Harry couldn't help but marvel at the sheer size of it. His house could easily fit inside and there would still be room for all the students to move about. The dim light of the torches was swallowed by the darkness so Harry couldn't make out the ceiling, but he did see the magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floor of the castle.

The first years were led past the doors on the right (in which Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices, probably all the older students) and into a small chamber off the hall. They crowded in and were all standing much closer together than Harry would have preferred. Professor McGonagall turned to face them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, "the start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule-breaking will lose you house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

When she left the chamber, Harry turned to Ron.

"So which house are your brothers in?"

"My entire family has been in Gryffindor," Ron said as Gloom seemed to settle in on him, "Not sure what they would say if I'm not. Suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, but even Hufflepuff would be better than Slytherin."

"I don't think Hufflepuff would be that bad," Neville spoke up, "My Great-Uncle Algie was in Hufflepuff, and he's a great wizard."

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor myself," Hermione said, "How about you Harry?"

Harry shrugged, "I'd like to be in Gryffindor, too, since both my parents were. But I don't think it matters where you're sorted. Not like I'm gonna be a different person just because I was in Slytherin instead of Gryffindor."

Ron looked at him disbelievingly, "You do know that every witch or wizard that went bad was from Slytherin, right?"

"And my mum said she knew plenty of decent people that were also in Slytherin," Harry said pointedly, "It's your choices in life that make you what you are, _not _the house you're sorted in."

Before their conversation could bloom into a full blown argument, several people behind them screamed. He turned to find nearly twenty ghosts had floated through the back wall. Two of them seemed to be arguing.

"Forgive and forget, I say," said one who looked like a friar, "we ought to give him a second chance."

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?" said a ghost wearing a ruff and tights, "He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost… I say, what do you expect to do with that?"

When Harry realized that he was the one being addressed, he noticed that as he had turned around, he had drawn his wand and was pointing it at the ghosts. Rather sheepishly, he quickly put his wand away. What could he have done to the ghost with his wand? Were there even spells that could affect ghost? Even if there was, he certainly didn't know any.

"New students!" exclaimed the Friar as he smiled around at them, "About to be sorted are you?"

A few people nodded.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff," said the Friar, "My old house you know."

"Move along now," a sharp voice said, "The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall continued as the ghost floated through the opposite wall, "and follow me."

Harry got into line behind Hermione, with Ron and Neville after him, and they walked out of the chamber and into the Great Hall. Even with talking to his mum about it, Harry never did fully realize how strange and splendid the place was. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles floating above four long tables where all the other students sat. At the end of the hall was another table where the teachers were sitting, and all the tables were laid with glittering gold plates and goblets. Harry glanced up to see that the ceiling was indeed bewitched to look like the sky outside, which was currently velvety black and dotted with stars. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling at all.

Professor McGonagall led the first-years up to the front of the hall so that the line faced the gathered students. After a moment she placed a four-legged stool with what looked like an old, pointy wizard's hat. It took a moment for Harry to see that everyone in the hall had their attention on the hat. He wondered about that until the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened like a mouth… and then the hat began to sing.

_"Oh you may not think me pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.!"_

_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap_

Harry stood staring at the hat, barely noticing that the hall had burst into applause. His mum had been right; it definitely wasn't something he was expecting, even with all he had seen magic do.

"So we just have to try on some bloody hat?" Ron whispered to no one in particular, "That's it. I'm gonna kill them, and I mean it this time."

"When I call your name," Professor McGonagall said after she had stepped forward with a long roll of parchment, "you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!"

After hearing the sorting hat shout "HUFFLEPUFF!" Harry tuned out the sorting, just keeping his ears open for his and his friends' names. He spotted one of Ron's brothers at the table to his far right, and obviously concluded that it was the Gryffindor table.

"Granger, Hermione."

Harry looked back as Hermione practically ran to the stool and eagerly jammed it on her head. He couldn't help but smile at his friend's eagerness.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry clapped right along with those at the Gryffindor table as Hermione made her way over, her face beaming. Since he and his mother had described Hogwarts to her, she had always wanted to be in Gryffindor, and Harry knew, even though she never said it, it was because she was sure he would be in Gryffindor. In all honestly, Harry had decided that he would ask to be in the same house as Hermione no matter where she was sorted. He wasn't sure he could, but it never hurt to try.

Neville quickly joined Hermione at the Gryffindor table after nearly running off with the hat still on his head. A couple people later, Malfoy's name was called. The hat was barely placed on his head when it screamed "Slytherin!" A brief look of relief passed over his face, so brief Harry was sure he would have missed it if he had even blinked, before a cocksure grin was plastered on his face. He went to join Crabbe and Goyle at the table on the far left.

There weren't many people left now, so Harry knew it was coming closer and closer to what he secretly dreaded. It wasn't the sorting he was worried about, he actually didn't care which house he was in, though he did have his preferences. No, it was the reaction that he knew the students, and maybe even some of the teachers, would have at hearing his name.

Sure enough, the moment Professor McGonagall called out, "Potter, Harry!" whispers broke out across the Great Hall like a swarm of angry hornets. Harry sighed as he stepped towards the stool and refrained from rubbing the bridge of his nose. He really did hate this reaction. As he sat on the stool, Harry could almost see a sympathetic look on McGonagall's face before she plopped the sorting hat onto his head. He frowned slightly as it fell over his eyes, but at least he didn't have to see all the students craning their necks to get a good view of him.

"_Hmm_," said a small voice in his ear, "_Difficult. Very Difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness yes… interesting how you have a nice thirst to prove yourself, yet don't want to draw attention to yourself either… very interesting indeed. So where should I put you?_"

Harry calmly sat on the stool and thought, "_If you could, I'd like to be in Gryffindor_."

"_Gryffindor, eh?_" said the small voice, "_Are you sure? You could be great you know, and a house like Slytherin could lead you to that greatness quite easily._"

"_That is possible,_" Harry thought, "_But my friends are in Gryffindor and I don't want to leave them behind._"

The voice gave a small chuckle, "_With that kind of loyalty, I could just as easily put you in Hufflepuff. But if you're sure, better be_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the entire Hall. He took off the hat and walked steadily toward his friends at the Gryffindor table, doing his best to ignore the fact that he got the loudest cheer yet, though even he had to admit it was amusing seeing the Weasley twins chanting, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" at the other three tables. Ron's other brother Percy stood to shake his hand vigorously, as did a few others before he finally was able to sit down next to Neville and bury his face in the table to hide his embarrassment.

Once the Sorting Ceremony was able to continue and Professor McGonagall called the next name on the list, a rather amused Neville leaned over and said, "Bit much, wouldn't you say?"

Harry gave him a look as if to say 'You think?' before turning his attention back to the sorting. It was finally Ron's turn, and he was looking rather sickly when he finally sat down on the stool. The moment the hat hit his head, it spoke up.

"Heh, another Weasley. I know exactly what to do with you… GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry was clapping as loudly as the rest of the table as a much relived Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," Percy said as the last student made his way to the Slytherin table. At the head table, a man who could only be Albus Dumbledore got to his feet.

"Welcome!" he said, beaming towards all of the students, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you."

As Dumbledore sat back down, everyone clapped and cheered. Harry couldn't help but laugh. His mother had told him that as brilliant as Dumbledore was, he could be considered a bit eccentric. He had never been quite sure what she had meant until now.

"He really is a bit mad," he mumbled to himself, a smile on his face as he started to fill his plate with the food that had appeared before him.

"Ah, it's always good to see new blood in Gryffindor every year," said a voice from above Harry. He looked up to see the ghost in the ruff and tights, "Maybe you can help win us the House Championship this year. As morose as he is, the Bloody Baron can be quite insufferable when he wants to be."

"Well, I'll do my best, sir…?"

"Ah, I haven't introduced myself, have I? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, resident ghost of Gryffindor," the ghost said pompously.

"I know who you are," Ron said suddenly, "You're Nearly Headless Nick. My brothers told me all about you."

"I would prefer to be called Sir Nicholas de…"

"_Nearly_ Headless?" interrupted the sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan, "How can you be _nearly _headless?"

"Like this," Sir Nicholas said, looking extremely miffed. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck as if on a hinge. Once he was pleased with the stunned, and possibly somewhat ill, looks on their faces, he flipped his head back onto his neck.

"So," Seamus said, still looking a little green, "Which one is the Bloody Baron?"

"He's the Slytherin resident ghost," Sir Nicholas said, nodding over towards the far table. Harry looked to see a horrible ghost with blank eyes, gaunt face, and covered with silvery blood. He was hovering near Malfoy, and Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for the blond boy.

"So how did he get covered in blood?" Seamus wondered.

"I've never asked," Sir Nicholas said. Seamus shrugged, only looking slightly disappointed.

As the main courses vanished from the plates and the desserts appeared, conversations turned toward family.

"It was such a surprise when Professor Flitwick arrived at my house," Hermione said, "Though to be honest, even without all the accidental magic, I had always felt that I was different somehow."

"I know what you mean," agreed Dean Thomas, "It's like you know that there is something more to the world than what you see."

"I'm half and half myself" Seamus responded, "Me dad's a Muggle. Me mam didn't tell him she's a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

"Same here," Harry said, "My mother being Muggle-born helped me pass as a Muggle for the longest time, didn't it Hermione?"

Hermione just rolled her eyes at him, though he could see that she did have a smile on her face.

"My whole family has been magical," Ron said, "Though I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him so it might not even be true. What about you Neville?"

"It's the same here, though my entire family though I was a Squib for ages."

"Squib?" Hermione asked.

"Non-magical person born of magical parents," Neville explained, "Basically the exact opposite of a Muggle-born. Like I said, my family thought I was one for ages until I was like seven or eight. My great-Uncle Algie was hanging me out an upstairs window by my ankle when he 'accidentally' let go. Thankfully all I did was bounce all the way down the garden into the road."

"I remember you telling us about that," Harry said, "Mum was so angry at your great-Uncle she wanted to give him a piece of her mind, not to mention a hex or two."

"Yeah, as happy as she was with me, Gran had a few words with Uncle Algie," Neville remembered, and both he and Harry shivered at the thought.

"That is one woman I never want to cross, your Gran," Harry shuddered.

"I could say ditto to your mum, though your sister isn't far behind," Neville countered.

"Ha!" Ron said, "My mum and sister could take your mum and sister, as well as your Gran, Neville, on people you don't want to cross. Talk about scary."

As the debate continued on whose female family members were unsafe to cross, Harry glanced up at the High Table, again looking at the different professors. When his eyes fell across a professor wearing an absurd turban who was talking to a professor with greasy black hair, a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

Harry hissed in pain as he clapped his hand to his head. Hermione looked over at him.

"You okay, Harry?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing," he said. Hermione gave him one last look before turning back to her chocolate pudding. Harry looked back up at the table at where those two professors were talking, but nothing happened this time.

"Hey Percy, who are those two professors talking at the far end of the High Table," Harry asked. Percy glanced up at the head table to see who Harry was talking about.

"The one in the turban is Professor Quirrell, he will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. Used to be the Muggle Studies professor before he took a year sabbatical, supposedly to gain first hand experience of his new position. The other one is our potions professor, Professor Snape. Though he's really after Quirrell's job, he knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Harry watched Snape for a moment. For some reason after getting a good look at the professor, he felt that he knew him, even though Harry knew he had never met the man. Before he could ponder what this could mean, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat and waited as the Hall fell silent, "Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

"First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Harry could see that Dumbledore seemed to glance in the direction of the Weasley twins, who themselves seemed to pretend not to hear the last statement he made.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Harry felt himself shiver at the seriousness in Dumbledore's voice.

Sometime later, after singing the school song (which his mum had called an auditory nightmare), Harry found himself sleepily following Percy through the castle toward what he had to assume was Gryffindor House. He hadn't realized how tired and full he was until he had stood up. He vaguely remembered a bundle of walking sticks floating in mid-air, Percy mentioning something about a poltergeist, seeing a very large portrait of a woman in a pink dress, being told which doorway led to the boys' dormitories, and hearing Ron complain about Scabbers eating his bed sheets, before crawling into bed and falling asleep after an eventful day.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 6

Harry sighed as he and Ron raced down the corridor in an attempt to make it to class on time. Even as he ran past, he could still see the heads turning, trying to get a look at him, some so fast that he was sure that they must have gotten whiplash. This had been happening since the moment he had left his dormitory the day after the start of term feast, people trying to get a good look at him, some even walking by twice just to do so. Between that and all the whispers, it was a wonder he could even find his way to his classes at all.

Of course, that wasn't his only problem.

"Why did I even listen to you?" Harry said to Ron as he jumped past the vanishing step, "'Take a left here,' you said, 'it'll take us straight to class.' We're lucky Filch didn't find us near that door."

"How was I supposed to know it was gonna take us to the forbidden corridor," Ron said defensively, "The twins said it would take me right to Transfigurations today."

"You should know better than to listen to those two, at least when it comes to their 'helpful' directions," Harry said as he rounded a corner, nearly colliding with a couple of older Hufflepuffs.

"Well they sounded truthful," Ron mumbled.

Harry just shook his head. "Should have left with Neville and Hermione," he muttered to himself. Thankfully it didn't take them too long to make it to the Transfigurations classroom, and they were only a few minutes late.

"Well at least McGonagall isn't here," Ron said hopefully, "Maybe she won't even realize we're late."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Mr. Weasley," said a rather stern voice from behind them. The two boys turned to find Professor McGonagall giving them both a firm glare, "I suggest that the two of you arrive on time from this point on. Now take your seats."

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," McGonagall said as Harry took the empty seat next to Hermione, "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

As he began making a lot of complicated notes, Harry couldn't help but marvel at how different each subject was. They studied the night sky through their telescopes on Wednesdays at midnight. Three times a week they would meet Professor Sprout out in the greenhouses for Herbology. Charms was taught by Professor Flitwick, an excitable little wizard who, when he reached Harry's name on the register during their first meeting, gave a squeak and tumbled off the stack of books that he used to see over his desk.

The two most disappointing lessons in Harry's opinion were History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry loved history and had looked forward to the class even when he was told how boring it was. But even he had trouble concentrating on the droning voice of Professor Binns, the only ghost that was teaching at Hogwarts. Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn't much better as Professor Quirrell seemed about as competent as Professor Binns was entertaining. There was just something completely off about the man that Harry couldn't put his finger on.

By the time Friday rolled around, the only class that Harry and his friends hadn't taken was Potions. Harry had mixed feeling about Potions; on one hand he had seen some of the things his mother could do with her potions ability. They had potions on hand for just about any aliment when he was growing up, and he would like to be able to do that himself. On the other hand, Harry had heard some rather horrible things about the potions professor.

"I've heard that he forces students to drink their own potions if they failed to make it correctly, just to see what would happen," Ron said over breakfast.

"Ronald," Hermione chided, "I doubt Professor Snape would do such a thing. A lot of potions can be deadly if not done right."

"My point exactly!" Ron exclaimed.

"Then why haven't we heard about any dead Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, hmm? They already have had Potions this week," Hermione pointed out.

"Well I'm sure he keeps an antidote or something about," Ron said, "I mean he wouldn't have anyone to torture if he killed everyone."

Hermione just gave an exasperated sigh as she shook her head and went back to her breakfast.

"You don't think he's really that bad, do you?" Neville asked Harry, "He makes me nervous enough as is, and you know I mess things up when I get nervous."

"You'll be fine, Neville," Harry assured him, "Just remember to slow down and take your time."

Just then, the post arrived, so Harry glanced around for his Snowy owl, Hedwig. She hadn't brought him anything yet but she usually came by to say hello and get something to eat before she went off to sleep in the owlery. He had sent a letter home the other day, so he was expecting a reply. Sure enough, when Harry caught sight of her, she had a letter clutched in her beak. Though much to his surprise, when she landed Harry saw that he had a second letter tied to her foot.

Ignoring the one she had dropped on his plate, he untied the one on her leg. He recognized the handwriting as his mother's, so Harry had to wonder who the other letter was from. As Hedwig helped herself to some of the bacon he had on his plate, Harry tore open the first letter.

_Dear Harry_ (it said, in a very untidy scrawl)

_I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you and Hermione like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig._

_Hagrid_

He borrowed Hermione's quill (after seeing that she wanted to go) and scribbled '_Yes, please, see you later'_ on the back of the note. He held it out to Hedwig, who gave him an affectionate nip on his finger before she took the note and set off again. He then turned his attention to the letter from his mother.

_Dear Harry_

_It's wonderful that you were sorted into Gryffindor, and I'm very proud of you. I'm also glad you made friends with Ron. His mother and I have known each other for years. Though I will say try not to limit yourself to making friends only from your house. I had plenty of friends from the other houses, yes even from Slytherin. Is Minerva (Professor McGonagall to you) still Head of House? I would imagine she is since I doubt she would give that up. As much as she can complain about it, I know she loves it as much as she loves teaching Transfiguration (though as strict as she is, I'm sure it's hard to tell). Anyway, I'd better keep this short; I've got three different potions brewing at the moment that need my attention. I'll hand this parchment over to your sister._

_Love,_

_Mum_

_PS. Don't worry about your potions lesson, the professor might seem a bit frightening, but as long as you don't cross him too much, you should be fine._

At this point, the handwriting shifted to the slightly more hurried script that he knew was his sister's:

_Hey Harry,_

_Sounds like Hogwarts is keeping you busy, and is as interesting as Mum makes it. Can't wait to start next year. Oh, guess what, guess what. I made a new friend! Met her on the platform when you headed off to school. Her name's Ginny, and she's Ron's little sister, (I think you met her when Mrs. Weasley showed you how to get onto the platform.) It's nice having a friend my own age, and a girl at that. I mean, I like Hermione, but she has always been more your friend than mine. Anyway, I think you'll like her when you finally get to really meet her. I'd better go though, Hedwig seems anxious to get going again._

_See you at Christmas!_

_Alex_

Harry smiled at his sister's part of the letter, glad she had made a new friend. He never voiced it, but he had been worried about Alex. She and Harry had always been close, so he wasn't sure how she would take his being gone for most of the year. Now he knew she would be fine.

------

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons, which made the classroom creepy enough without all the pickled animals and animal parts floating in glass jars around the room. Professor Snape did nothing to relieve the eeriness of the room, either, with his dark robes and pale complexion. Ron had told him that there was a rumor that Snape was actually a vampire, but Harry didn't believe it. He had seen him out and about enough times during the day this week to know it was untrue.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he said a few moments after finishing the register. He spoke in barely a whisper, but he had a gift of keeping a class silent without effort, so they caught every word. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death… if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Silence followed his little speech. Already Harry could tell that Snape wasn't the most polite of people, though that didn't necessarily make them bad.

"Potter," Snape said suddenly, "What would you get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry frowned. He knew enough about potions from his mother to know the answer, but at the moment he couldn't exactly recall what it was called. After a few moments, in which he could see Hermione itching to raise her hand to answer, he turned back toward Snape.

"It makes a sleeping potion, sir, a really powerful one," Harry replied, "though I can't recall the name at the moment. Draught of something… oh wait, Draught of the Living Death."

"Interesting. Let's try another one, Potter. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of an animal, sir. A goat, I believe," Harry again answered, somewhat hesitant.

"I see," Snape said, "Now, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane, Potter?"

"There is no difference, sir," Harry, said, much more confidently this time. He knew this answer. "They're the same plant. They also go by the name of aconite."

Snape narrowed his eyes before stepping forward and picking up Harry's book. After examining it for a short while he said, "Well since it seems you hardly have even opened your book, Potter, I'd like to know who gave you those answers."

"My mother, sir," Harry said. The corner of Snape's mouth twitched.

"Well, you are indeed correct on all three questions, Potter," he said as he turned back toward the front of the class, "Though I expect you to do all of your own work from now on and not write home to mummy dearest when you can't figure out how to blow your nose in this class."

Harry heard a few of the Slytherins snigger at the comment, but he did his best to ignore them, though he did have to bite his tongue to keep from saying something he knew he would regret. As much as he wanted to, Harry knew the only thing it would get him was detention and probably points deducted from Gryffindor.

Sometime later, Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. As he swept around the room in his long black cloak, Snape criticized almost every one but Malfoy, though Harry, Hermione, and most of the other Slytherin got off with only a comment or two. Harry chose to ignore Snape's comments on how well Malfoy was doing and glanced over at how Neville and Seamus were doing.

"Wait, Neville, Don't!" Harry cried when he realized what Neville was about to add. He reached over to grab Neville's arm, but was a moment too late. A cloud of acid green smoke bellowed from Seamus's cauldron and a loud hissing sound filled the dungeon as it deformed. Harry quickly pulled Neville away, but not before Neville's hand was covered in the escaping potion, and he moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over it.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion with a wave of his wand, "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire? Be thankful Potter pulled you away when he did!

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry.

"One point from Gryffindor for not stopping him earlier, Potter. Next time, pay more attention to what your foolish classmates are doing wrong!"

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but clamped it shut again. He knew if he said anything right now, it wouldn't be good. His temper had always been bad, as was Snape's apparently, and mixing the two would probably be nothing short of cataclysmic. When it was time to leave, Harry was glad for it. He just wanted to get away from Snape and let his anger cool. He was almost to the door when:

"Potter, a word."

Harry bit back a curse. He really didn't need this right now. Hermione gave him a worried looked, but he shook his head, telling her not to worry and for her and Ron to go check on Neville. As his two remaining friends left, he took a deep breathe and turned back toward Snape.

"Yes, Professor," he said as evenly as possible, though it did come out a little cool.

"I meant what I said earlier about you doing your own work," Snape said, either not noticing or not caring about Harry's tone of voice, "However, if you ever truly are stuck on a problem for this class, I have no qualms about you asking your mother for help. She's one of my few contemporaries whose skill I feel is equal to my own in potions-making."

"You know my mother, Professor?" Harry asked, his anger forgotten for the moment.

"I do, Potter, in fact we went to school together, hence why I know she's as good as I am," Snape said.

"How well did you know each other?" Harry asked

"That… is neither here nor there, Potter," he said as he turned back to the papers on his desk, "I've said my piece, you can go.

"Oh and Potter," Snape called, causing Harry to turn from walking out the door, "One point to Gryffindor for your fast reaction. Longbottom probably would have been much worse off had you not pulled him away from his cauldron."

Harry was shocked. Did Professor Snape, known antagonist to everyone person who wasn't in Slytherin House, just give him, a Gryffindor, a point? Harry couldn't help the smile forming on his face as he left the dungeon. No one was going to believe this.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 7

"You know, I bet it's some kind of talisman, or amulet that grants the wearer immortality," Ron said between shoving pieces of bacon into his mouth.

Harry shook his head as he buttered his toast. It had been nearly a month since their first visit to Hagrid's and his finding out that there had been a break-in at Gringotts the very day he and Hermione had gone to Diagon Alley. The same day Hagrid had taken the small package from vault seven hundred and thirteen. Though he hadn't said anything to Hagrid at the time, he had mentioned to Ron, Hermione, and Neville what he had found and his thoughts as they walked back up to school. The boys had spent the next few hours speculating (much to Hermione's dismay) on what they thought the mysterious item was, a subject both Ron and Neville continued to speculate on since then.

"Honestly Ron, don't you have more important things to do other than to speculate on what was in that vault," Hermione scolded, "Especially since you shouldn't have known about it in the first place."

Ron started to say something, but still had a mouth full of food, so he quickly swallowed it and continued, "Come on, Hermione, it's not like we're gonna go looking for the bloody thing. Aren't you even a tad bit curious about what it could be?"

"Of course I'm curious," Hermione said, rolling her eyes, "It's just I've had other things on my mind, or have you forgotten we have our first flying lesson today?"

Harry gave a start when she mentioned the flying lessons. In all honesty, he hadn't really given it much thought when he saw the notice in the Gryffindor Common room the other day. He already knew how to fly, in fact according to his mum, he had been on a broom since before he knew how to crawl.

"Maybe it's something that will help you stay on a broom," Neville said somewhat dejectedly, "That way I can ask to borrow it."

"Never been on a broom, Neville?" Ron asked, somewhat surprised.

Neville shook his head, "Gran never let me near one, too dangerous she said. Even made Harry's mum promise never to allow me to ride one."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Neville," Harry said, trying to reassure his friend, "All you need is to have a little confidence in yourself."

The owl post arrived not long after. Harry was slightly surprised that Hedwig had a letter for him, considering he hadn't written home in a while. Once Harry had greeted her and she was off to sleep, he opened the letter to see his sister's hasty script.

_Hey Harry_

_Thought I'd let you know mum left on one of her business trips again. I'm staying at Ginny's house until she gets back. The Weasley's home is so cool, I've never seen anything like it. It's so worn and lived in and it's incredible. I honestly though it would be something like Neville's home, seeing as both families are old wizarding ones, but it's so much better (don't tell Neville I said that). I love Ginny's parents, Mrs. Weasley is so doting, and Mr. Weasley is so funny with all his questions and idea about Muggles. Maybe we should get him together with Hermione's parents, I'm sure he'd get a kick out of a purely Muggle perspective on things. Anyway, Ginny and I are going to go explore the woods near the orchard after breakfast so I'd better finish up._

_Love, _

_Alex._

"So what exactly does your mum do, anyway?" Ron asked after Harry mentioned what his sister was up to.

"She makes potions and charms items for people. Usually if they want an item charmed, mum has them send it to her so she can do it from home," Harry explained, "But sometimes the item can either be too big, too impractical, or too valuable to send, so she has to travel in order to do the charm work."

"Okay, but why would your sister have to stay at my house," Ron wondered, "It shouldn't take that long, should it?"

"Sometimes the charm work is very intricate and could take days to finish," Harry said with a shrug, "Plus it depends on how far she has to go. Mum doesn't like to apparate if she doesn't have to, and she keeps our fireplace on a very limited floo network."

"I can understand that, I guess, but why not just temporarily connect their fireplace with yours?"

"Mum tried that when she first started, but too many clients turned out to be people just attempting to get a glimpse of 'the-boy-who-lived,'" Harry shivered slightly as he remembered, "Trust me it was a nightmare."

"Gran limited our floo network for the same reason," Neville said, "Anytime word got out that Harry was staying with us, they attempted to floo in. Of course it didn't stop them, took Gran hexing three people into St. Mungo's and a slew of repelling charms to keep them from jumping the fence onto our property."

Ron grimaced, and Hermione looked a little pale, "I know you told me being famous was a nightmare, but even then I never thought it was _that_ bad."

"I think if Harry was _just_ famous, it wouldn't be so bad," Neville offered, "but the being 'the-boy-who-lived' and savior of the wizarding world moved it to a whole different category.

"Anyway, we'd better get going to class," Neville continued as he stood and pick up his bag. It was then that Harry noticed Neville had a glass ball the size of a large marble in his hand; a Remembrall if he wasn't mistaken, "I just remembered that I haven't finished my Transfigurations essay, and I'd like to have time to complete it."

-----

At three-thirty, the first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins found themselves standing across from each other, each one of them near one of the school's brooms. Harry remembered hearing Fred and George complain about how these brooms either started to vibrate when flown too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" their teacher, Madame Hooch, barked, "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up. Now, stick out your right hand over your broom and say, 'Up!'"

"Up!" everyone shouted, with mixed results.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few who did. Hermione's broom had just rolled over on the ground, and Neville's didn't even move at all. Ron called for his broom twice, but each time it only came up halfway. In his frustration, Ron barked out for a third time, to which his broom responded by popping up on its tail and smacking him in his face. Harry couldn't help but laugh ("Oh shut it, Harry," Ron had grouched).

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch after she showed them how to mount their brooms, correctly, "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle… three… two… one…"

When the whistle blew, the twenty students lifted off the ground, some more steady than others. Harry had to resist the urge to continue to rise, to just let loose and fly. It had been months since he last had a chance to fly, and being forced to do this slowly was killing him. But like he was told, Harry and everyone else leaned forward and gently landed back on the ground. Everyone, that is, but Neville. Try as he might, he couldn't get his broom to go back down. To make matters worse, his broom actually started to rise.

"Neville!" Harry shouted, starting to push off from the ground again.

"Mr. Potter, stay on the ground," Madam Hooch ordered, even though she kept her eyes on Neville.

"But…"

"No buts Mr. Potter, I have enough problems at the moment without you in the air as well," she snapped.

Frustrated, Harry slammed his broom on the ground. All he could do was watch helplessly as Neville continued to rise… twelve feet… twenty feet. Then to Harry's horror, the broom shifted suddenly, causing Neville to slip off the broom. He held on for a second before his grip slipped and he fell. Madam Hooch quickly cast a spell that Harry didn't hear, and it did seem to slow Neville's fall, but he still hit the ground hard enough to make a loud thud, and Harry flinched at the nasty sounding crack he heard. He, Ron, Hermione all made their way over, but gave Madam Hooch room as she bent over Neville, her face as pale as his.

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter, "Come on boy… it's all right, up you get."

"None of you is to move while I take Mr. Longbottom to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch,'" she said to the rest of the class as she lead Neville, who was clutching his wrist, off to the castle.

Harry was torn as whether he should listen to Madam Hooch and stay put or making sure his friend is alright. He had just started to follow when he heard Malfoy burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" he said as he walked over to where Neville had landed.

Harry's fists clenched as the other Slytherin joined in.

"And look, it's that stupid thing his gran sent him," Malfoy smirked as he held up Neville's Remembrall, "I'll think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect… like in a tree."

"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry snapped, his temper flaring. Malfoy just sneered at him as he hopped on his broom and took off.

"Come and get it, Potter."

Harry grabbed his broom, but before he could take off, Hermione grabbed his arm.

"Harry, you need to calm down. He's just trying to goad you into doing something stupid," she said, trying to get him to listen to reason. But Harry would have none of it. He shrugged off her arm and kicked hard off the ground. Even in his anger, Harry couldn't help but feel the rush he usually got when he flew. He always felt free when he was flying, like he didn't have a care in the world.

He turned his broomstick sharply to the left and skidded around in mid-air to cut Malfoy off. Malfoy was shocked at Harry's display of skill.

"Give it here Malfoy," Harry called, "Or I'll knock you off that broom. No Crabbe and Goyle up here to hide behind."

Malfoy paled, as if just realizing this himself. But his shocked expression quickly turned into a snarl.

"They wouldn't be able to keep up with us even if they were. But if it's this thing you want, Potter, then catch it if you can," he snarled, and then he threw the glass ball high into the air before streaking to the ground.

Harry saw as, in his perception, the ball slowly rise in the air before it started to fall. He leant forward and pointed his broom handle down to go into a steep dive, gathering speed. As the wind whistled in his ears, mingling with the screams of people watching, Harry stretched out his hand. A foot from the ground he caught the ball, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with it clutched safely in his hand.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Harry cringed as he heard his named shouted. He turned to find Professor McGonagall running towards them.

"_Never_… in all my time at Hogwarts…" She was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "…how _dare_ you… might have broken your neck…"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor…"

"Be quiet, Miss Granger…

"But Malfoy…"

"That's _enough_, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."

Harry numbly followed Professor McGonagall, not even seeing the look of smug look of triumph on Malfoy's face. He wanted to say something to defend himself, but he couldn't seem to find his voice. What was going to happen now? Was he going to be expelled, like Madam Hooch had threatened? What would his mother say? Harry shuddered at even the thought. Maybe they would just revoke his flying privileges and give him a few weeks of detention. As much as Harry didn't like the idea of not being able to fly, he found that much more acceptable than facing his mother.

Harry was so preoccupied by his thoughts that he hadn't even realized that they had arrived at the school until he nearly ran into Professor McGonagall when she stopped outside of a classroom.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick," she said as she poked her head inside the door, "Can I borrow Wood for a moment?"

At first Harry thought that Wood was some kind of cane, but as it turned out, Wood was actually a burly fifth-year boy, who looked rather confused at the moment.

"Follow me you two," Professor McGonagall said as she turned up the corridor. Harry and Wood followed quickly. A short time later, she pointed them inside an unused classroom and, after kicking Peeves out and shutting the door, turned to face the two boys.

"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood… I've found you a seeker!"

Wood's expression turned from confusion to excitement.

"Are you serious Professor?" he asked.

"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply, "the boy's a natural. He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive, didn't even scratch himself. Not even Charlie Weasley could have done that."

Wood looked like all his dreams had come true. Harry though, was still utterly confused.

"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Professor McGonagall explained.

"We'll have to get him a decent broom," Wood said as he walked around Harry, looking him over.

"I have a broom," Harry supplied, finally finding his voice, "a Nimbus Two-Thousand. Got it for my birthday."

"Excellent. I shall speak with Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule," Professor McGonagall said, "Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. _Flattened_ in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"

Harry gave a start. He recognized Severus as the name of one of his mum's closest friends when she was in school. And Professor Snape did admit that he had known her, though he didn't say how well. Could they be one in the same? Harry pushed that thought aside for the moment as he heard Professor McGonagall address him.

"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you," Professor McGonagall said as she peered sternly at Harry over her glasses.

"Wait a minute," Harry said, "You mean I just did something that was, admittedly, very stupid, and I get off scot-free?"

"Well, when you put it that way," Professor McGonagall said, giving him a smile very reminiscent of one he had seen on the Weasley twins from time to time, "We wouldn't want to have people think I'm showing favoritism, now would we?"

Harry groaned.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: JK Rowling own Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Authors Note: This was originally part of the previous chapter, but it was suggested that I split it into two.

Chapter 8

"You're _joking._"

Harry had just finished telling Ron and Hermione what had happened when he left the grounds with Professor McGonagall (Neville unfortunately was still in the Hospital Wing). Ron had a piece of steak-and-kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but had forgotten all about it, his eyes wide with disbelief. Hermione, on the other hand, had a frown forming on her lips.

"_Seeker?_" Ron asked, finally dropping his fork, "But first-years _never…_ you must be the youngest house player in…"

"… A century," said Harry as he continued to eat. He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon, "Wood told me."

Ron was so amazed, so impressed; he just sat and gaped at Harry. Hermione, however, just harrumphed as she picked at her food. Ron turned a glare at her.

"You got something to add?" Ron asked, trying to keep his tone civil, though it did come out a little icy.

"No," Hermione said airily, though she wouldn't meet either Ron or Harry's eyes.

"Hermione," Harry said, knowing what his friends reaction meant, "If you have something to say, just say it. We won't think ill of you."

Ron looked like he might argue that last point, but a quick glare from Harry kept him silent.

"Well," Hermione said hesitantly before taking a deep breath and continuing, "I am happy for you Harry, really I am. But I don't think its right that you got off without punishment. It sets a bad example for the rest of the students."

"I never said I got off," Harry replied, his face flushing slightly. He hoped he wouldn't have to say more, though the confused looks on his friends' faces told him otherwise. He sighed.

"I've got a detention with Professor McGonagall every night until I start practice next week, starting tonight."

"Tough luck mate," said Fred Weasley as he and George sat on either side of Harry, "Though there are worse reasons to get detention."

"Too right, Fred. Remember in our first year when Professor McGonagall's hair was turned bright pink?"

"Ah, a prank worthy of detention," Fred reminisced, "though it would have been better had we actually done it."

"True," George agreed, "You know, I do believe we have yet to get our dear brother Charlie back for framing us, have we?"

"All in due time, oh twin of mine," Fred rhymed with a grin, "Though we digress, we actually came here to congratulate you."

"Yes, well done," George said in a low tone, "Wood just told us. We're on the team too... Beaters."

"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

Fred and George had hardly disappeared when Malfoy, flanked once again by Crabbe and Goyle, turned up. Harry suppressed a snarl. With all the excitement, he had almost forgotten what the boy had said about Neville, though all it took was one look at that smug grin to remind him.

"Having a last meal, Potter?" Malfoy sneered, "You ready to go back and disappoint your precious mother?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground with your little friends?" Harry ground out through clenched teeth. He ignored the warning look he got from Hermione as he glared at the blonde-haired Slytherin.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy, "Tonight, if you want."

"Fine," Harry snapped, "Wizard's Duel. Wand's only… no contact. Name the time and place."

Malfoy smirked, "Midnight, trophy room, that's always unlocked. Who's your second?"

"I am," Ron said, wheeling around, "Who's yours?"

"Crabbe," Malfoy said after sizing up both Crabbe and Goyle, "Don't be late, Potter, wouldn't want you to miss your thrashing."

When Malfoy had gone, no more than a moment had passed before Harry groaned and dropped his head onto the table.

"Harry," Hermione admonished.

"I know, I know," Harry replied as he picked his head up and rubbed his nose.

"What?" Ron asked.

"I let my temper get the best of me, again," Harry answered, "And if I'm not careful, Malfoy will know exactly how to goad me into anything."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked.

"On more than one occasion, the bullies at the Muggle primary school we attended would trick Harry into getting himself into all sorts of trouble," Hermione answered before giving Harry a pointed look, "You do realize that's probably what's going to happen, right?"

"Of course it is. Malfoy's probably telling Filch about it right now," Harry said, finally looking up at his friends, "But it's not like I have much of a choice. If I don't show up, Malfoy will just call me a coward, and there is no way I could refute that if I wasn't there."

"Harry," Hermione said, exasperated.

"You're not going to try to talk us out of it, are you?" Ron asked. He wasn't in the mood to sit through on of Hermione's lectures of about what's right and what's wrong.

"If I thought it would do any good, maybe, but I've known Harry long enough to know it won't," Hermione replied, "I am, however, going with you."

Both boys began to protest, but Hermione just shook her head.

"Look, whether or not Malfoy shows up, it's best to have an extra set of eyes as a look out, correct?" Reluctantly, both Ron and Harry had to agree.

----

Later that night, Harry lay awake listening to Dean and Seamus drift off to sleep. He was slightly worried that Neville had yet to return from the hospital wing, but the anxiety he felt about the duel was beating out his concern for his friend, though not by much. Harry knew he was pushing his luck breaking another school rule today. He somehow doubted he would just be getting another week of detention if he got caught.

"Half past eleven," Ron muttered to his left, "We'd better go."

They pulled on their dressing-gowns, picked up their wands and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase and into the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was waiting for them by the portrait hole. Slowly the three of them exited the common room, silently making their way down the corridor. As they neared the end, Harry heard what sounded like footsteps coming from around the corner. He waved for Ron and Hermione to stop as he tried to focus more on what he heard. It was definitely footsteps, and they were heading their direction.

"Doesn't sound like Filch's," Harry whisper, "They're much too light and even."

"Could it be a Prefect?" asked Hermione.

"I don't think so," Harry said, "I remember hearing the Prefects return to the tower around ten-thirty or so."

"Probably Malfoy then," Ron speculated, "Git's hoping to catch us off guard."

"Whoever it is, I'm not about to get caught here," Harry said as he motion toward the shadows along the wall. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

The three Gryffindors sat in near silence, only their breath making any sound, and even that sounded deafening to Harry at the moment. He gripped his wand tight in his hand, his palm sweaty. In hindsight it might not have been the wisest to have his wand out while hiding in the shadow, but Harry wasn't about to be caught without it, just in case it was Malfoy.

As the footsteps grew closer, Harry tensed and raised his wand, ready to cast the first curse that came to mind. Fortunately, he quickly recognized the person as they stepped around the corner.

"Neville," Harry said stepping out of the shadows, relieved that it wasn't Malfoy or Filch.

Neville gave a startled yelp when he heard his named being called. He quickly turned toward the voice, instinctively reaching for his wand before he realized who had spoken.

"Bloody hell, Harry, are you trying to add to the number of ghosts in Hogwarts?"

"How's your wrist?" Hermione asked as she and Ron stepped out as well.

"its fine," Neville said as he held out his hand, rotating his wrist, "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute, though had me stay for a while for observation. She finally let me out a few hours ago."

"If she let you out a few hours ago, why weren't you in bed?" Ron asked.

Neville shrugged, though even in the shadowed hallway, Harry could see his cheeks flush slightly, "I got lost. By the time I found my way here, the Fat Lady wasn't in her frame. I've been looking around the last hour trying to find her. And what are you three doing out here, anyway?"

"Long story," Harry said, "We'll explain on the way. Come on."

They quickly and quietly made their way down the corridors toward the trophy room, explaining to Neville about what had happened out on the ground after he left, Harry being made seeker ("Wicked," Neville said with a grin), and the Wizards Duel between him and Malfoy. The entire time, Harry expected either Mrs. Norris or Filch to suddenly step out and catch them, but they made it without incident.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet, so they hung near the walls and waited. Neville and Hermione each kept an eye on one of the doors at either end of the room while Harry and Ron went over again a few of the spell that they knew. The minutes crept by.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered. It was then that Hermione motioned for them to listen. After a moment they heard someone speak… and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around my sweet, they might be lurking in the corners."

Harry had paled when he heard Filch talking to Mrs. Norris, and quickly motioned everyone toward the door opposite Filch. They had barely made it around the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

Harry and the others crept down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting closer and Harry tried not to panic. As he looked back to see if Filch had spotted them or not, he stepped on the hem of Neville robes, causing the boy to stumble into a suit of armor. It teetered for moment before it completely toppled over.

The clanging and crashing was enough to wake the whole castle.

"RUN!" Harry yelled and the four of them sprinted down the gallery and out into the corridor. They ran without any idea as to where they were or where they were going. After traveling through a hidden passage, they came out near the Charms classroom.

"I think we lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the wall.

"I… hate to say… I told you so…" Hermione gasped, clutching a stitch in her side.

"Yeah, yeah," Ron said as he finally caught his breathe, "We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible."

Unfortunately, they hadn't gone more than a dozen steps when they heard a squeal of delight from behind them. They turned to find Peeves floating in the corridor behind them. He had a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Should tell Filch, I should," he said.

"Peeves, don't you dare..." Ron started, taking a step forward. Wrong move.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" Peeves bellowed.

Turning away from Peeves, they hurried down the corridor only to be stopped dead by a looked door at the end.

"This is it!" Ron moaned as Harry and Neville pushed helplessly against the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

"Oh move over," Hermione snapped as she pulled out her wand. She tapped the lock and said, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and they all piled through the doo and shut it quickly. Filch just entered the corridor as the door finished closing. They listened as Filch confronted Peeves, never before being so thankful that Peeve enjoyed messing with the old caretaker as much as he did the students. Harry turned around to lean back against the door, thankful that they hadn't been caught when he froze in horror. Surely he had walked into a nightmare.

Behind them was monstrous dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor and stretched far back into the corridor, the forbidden corridor Harry would later realize. It had three heads that were all looking in the direction of the four students, and Harry realized that the only reason they weren't dead was because their sudden appearance had caught it by surprise.

Harry groped for the doorknob, the thunderous growls coming from the dog telling him it was slowly overcoming its surprise. Between Filch and a near certain death, he'd take Filch.

They all fell backwards… Harry slammed the door shut and they ran, not caring whether or not Filch saw them. Before they knew it, they were back in front of the entrance of the Gryffindor common room.

"Where on earth have you been?" the Fat Lady asked, having returned to her frame sometime before.

"Never mind that… pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry. They scramble into the common room as the door opened and collapsed into the nearest seats. Had Harry not been so exhausted from their frantic run and still trembling slightly from their encounter, he might have been amused by the fact Hermione had collapsed onto the couch and was leaning against Ron.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron said finally, oblivious to his current situation.

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione said when she had finally gotten her breath back and sat up, "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"I wasn't looking at its feet, Hermione," Harry said, "I was too busy with its heads."

"It was standing on a trapdoor, wasn't it?" Neville asked.

Hermione nodded as she stood up, "My guess it was guarding something. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed. Please, let me know if any of you come up with some other brilliant idea of how else we can get into trouble."

Ron just rolled his eyes at her, but Hermione had given Harry something to think about. The dog was guarding something… and hadn't Hagrid said when they first met that the only place safer than Gringotts was probably Hogwarts.

As Harry thought more about it while climbing into bed, he realized that he might have found where that small package Hagrid had taken from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Potter. I own nothing but the idea.

Chapter 9

Harry sighed as he and his friends walked up the stairs from the dungeons, not even half listening to whatever Hermione was talking about. When he had gotten up that morning, he had felt that something didn't seem right, but nothing was out of the ordinary. It wasn't until just now in Potions that he finally realized what was wrong.

Harry missed his family.

He missed listening to his mum humming along with the Wizarding Wireless while she cooked. He missed hearing his sister complain that he was taking too long in the shower. He missed lounging in the sitting room doing nothing, only to have Alex pelt him with a pillow, starting another pillow fight. He missed the glare he and his sister would get from their mother because of said fight, only to have her smile and join in. He missed talking to his sister about nothing in particular, or his mum talking about his father and his friends, or…

"Harry!" Hermione said, finally bringing Harry from his musings, "You haven't heard anything I've said just now, have you?"

"Sorry, Hermione," Harry said, "I'm just a little distracted."

"You've been distracted all day, mate," Neville said, "Nearly got detention from Professor Snape, not that that's too hard to do, but you're usually pretty good with potions."

"Yeah, Harry what gives?" Ron asked.

"It's nothing, really. I'm just…" Harry sighed, "I guess I'm just homesick, that's all."

"How can you be homesick?" Ron asked, "We haven't even been at school a month."

"Because unlike you, _Ronald_, Harry doesn't have half his family at school with him,"

Hermione said.

"Yeah, well, neither you nor Neville are homesick, are you?" Ron pointed out.

"The Longbottom Manor isn't exactly a home, Ron," Neville pointed out, "It's more like a Museum or a Mausoleum. Other than my own room, I was afraid to do much of anything anywhere else. I do miss Gran though."

"And I do miss my parents," Hermione added, "But with their dental practice, they're gone for most of the day. It wasn't ideal, but I'm used to being by myself."

Ron blushed slightly and looked down.

"It's not my fault I have such a big family," he mumbled. Neville clapped him on the shoulder.

"No worries mate," Neville said, giving Ron a wry grin, "I bet its nice having family here, even if one of them is Percy."

"So what brought this on Harry," Hermione asked, "you seemed fine yesterday?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted, "I think it was Alex's last letter. She had mentioned how it was really quiet at home without me around. I guess it just got me thinking."

Hermione nodded as they entered the entrance hall. Before she could even being to think about what she could do to help Harry from his melancholy, she spotted someone standing near the large oak doors that lead out onto the grounds. It only took her a moment to recognize who it was, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Well, I think I might know of something that could help," Hermione said with a smile.

When Harry turned to her expectantly, all she did was point towards the front doors. Giving her a question look, Harry turned to where she was pointing, only to stop dead in his tracks, a huge smile breaking out on his face.

"Mum!"

------

Lily Potter looked around the Entrance Hall, lost in thought. She hadn't set foot in Hogwarts for almost twelve, not since Dumbledore had told them that Voldemort might come after Harry. It had been even longer since she had been where she now stood, not since her last day as a student.

Lily smiled. Now that was a day she would never forget. As Head Girl, she had been one of the last to leave, making sure none of the other students had forgotten anything or had gotten lost and had missed the carriages. James had been waiting for her, as well as the rest of the Marauders and some of her own friends. She and James had officially been dating since just after the school year had started, but in reality they had been together nearly a year. At first she had wondered why they where all waiting inside, since it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Lily had gotten her answer a short time later, however, when James had transfigured the rose he had handed her into and elegant, but simple, engagement ring. She had said yes before he had even asked.

That had been one of the happiest moments in her life, right up next to when she had gotten her Hogwarts letter, her wedding day, and the birth of her children.

"Mum!"

Lily was brought from her memories when she heard Harry call for her. She turned and saw her son running toward her, his friends still standing near the stairs leading toward the dungeon. She couldn't help but laugh a little as Harry enveloped her in a hug, one she quickly reciprocated.

"What are you doing here? Is Alex with you? How long can you stay?" Harry asked after he had released her.

"Not long unfortunately. Alex is still at home and I have some charms to finish up, I just dropped by to deliver your broom," Lily said. She watched as Harry's smile slipped a little.

"Oh, I see," He said, a little less enthusiastic than he was before "but, you brought my broom. That's great. Where is it? Ron said he wanted to have a go when I finally got it."

"Down in the broom shed," Lily said, looking her son over. Harry may have tried to hide it, but she could tell he was disappointed that she was leaving so soon.

"Tell you what," Lily said, suddenly having a thought, "you go and show Ron your broom, and I'll talk to Dumbledore to see if he'll let me take you and your friends to dinner tonight."

"Really?" Harry asked, slightly surprised, "but what about those charms?"

"They don't actually need to be done for a few more days. I'll even floo home real quick and get Alex," Lily said, her smile growing as Harry's face lit up. He hugged her again.

"You're the best, mum," he said.

"I know," Lily agreed before she let him go, "Now go on, your friends are waiting. I'll meet you back here to let you know what's happening."

Harry beamed at her one last time before turned and went back to his friends. Lily couldn't help but laugh when she saw how animated he was when he told them what was going on. She saw Ron Weasley's eyes grow with excitement as her son spoke, though she wasn't sure if it was because of Harry getting his broom or the idea of food, probably both.

Lily continued to watch as Harry and Ron quickly started up the stairs, more than likely to drop off their bags before heading out to the Quidditch pitch. She heard Hermione call after them to wait before she and Neville quickly followed. It was a scene she remembered being played out many times by another foursome a long time ago.

Lily shook away her reminiscing before heading up the stairs herself towards the Headmasters office.

-----

Lily had almost made it to the Headmaster's office when she heard a familiar voice around the corner up ahead.

"… and fifteen points each of your houses should hopefully teach you to be a bit more… discrete in your public displays of affection. Now leave before I decide to take any more points."

Lily watched as a pair of students, probably around sixth year, quickly moved around the corner and down the hall opposite from her. They were practically running. She shook her head, a small chuckle on her lips.

"Being a little hard on them, weren't you?" she said as the owner of the voice stepped around the corner.

Severus Snape turned toward the person who had addressed, and Lily watched as a ghost of a smile passed over the man's face before it returned to his usual indifference. It occurred to her that she was probably one of few people who had ever seen the Potions Master smile in a way that wasn't either cruel or sarcastic.

"I doubt there is a single professor in this school that would allow such activities to occur in the middle of the hall," Snape pointed out.

"True," Lily agreed, "but fifteen points each? That's a bit harsh, even from you."

"Let's see how well your mood would be after reading through the essays of a bunch of pathetic first years," he harrumphed.

"I hope you're not including my son in those pathetic first years, are you?" Lily asked. Snape snorted.

"Hardly, your son is one of the few I would consider worthy of my teachings," Snape said, "Though I would never admit that to anyone else."

"Oh, of course, couldn't be seen giving a Gryffindor praise," Lily said, a touch of humor in her voice, "though what's keeping me from telling him myself?"

"I would adamantly deny it." Lily laughed.

"I'm sure you would," she said with smile, "I doubt Harry would believe me anyway, he hardly believes we're friends."

"Most people wouldn't, all things considered," Snape said all too seriously. Lily's smile fell slightly.

"Severus…"

"It's been nice talking to you, Lily, really it has, but I have some potions brewing that I must return to. Please excuse me," he said as he started walking again.

"Severus," Lily said quietly, causing the man to pause just past her, "I forgave you a long time ago. When are you going to forgive yourself?"

"When I feel that I've earned that forgiveness," Snape said without turning toward her. He continued on without another word.

Lily turned and watched sadly as her friend left.

-----

"Ah, Lily," Albus Dumbledore said as he looked up from his desk, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit."

"I wanted to make sure if it was alright if I take Harry and his friends out to dinner tonight. And if I could use your fireplace to floo home quick and get Alex" Lily said with a slightly force smile.

Dumbledore glanced over his glasses at her, and for a moment Lily thought that he might say something about the encounter she had just had with Severus. Given the proximity to his office, it was very possible that the potions master had just left it himself.

"But of course," Dumbledore said after a brief pause, "I always encourage parents to come see their children at school, though few seldom do. Where do you plan on taking them?"

"Just to the Three Broomsticks," Lily said with a shrug, though silently she was thankful he didn't bring anything up, "The idea is a bit last minute, so I didn't want to take them too far."

"But still an excellent choice, none the less. I'm sure Madam Rosmerta will love to see you again," Dumbledore said as he stood, "Just allow me a few moments to give the children permission to leave the grounds and return later this evening."

While Dumbledore gathered the appropriate permissions, Lily took the time to look around the office. Little had changed in the intervening years, though it did look like there were even more of the delicate looking silver instruments sitting about. Most of the portraits of the former headmasters and headmistresses were sleep, though she did nod at the few that were awake and recognized her.

A cooing sound to her left drew here attention and Lily genuinely smiled when she saw what, or better who, was sitting there.

"Hello, Fawkes," Lily said as she reached out stroked the phoenix's feathers. Fawkes cooed again and nuzzled his head into her hand, causing Lily to laugh, "Yes, it's good to see you again, too."

"Fawkes has always been quite fond of you," Dumbledore said as he stepped up to the other side of phoenix, reaching out to stroke the bird himself.

"And I of him," Lily said, giving Fawkes on last pet before stepping away, "He is starting to look a little sickly though."

"Yes, I suspect that his burning day will be within the next few weeks," Dumbledore said before handing Lily a small bag, "This will allow the students to floo directly back into the Gryffindor Common room. And the fire is ready so you may go get young Alex."

"Thank you, Albus," Lily said as she accepted the bag and stepped over to the fireplace, "I'll try not to keep them out too late."

-----

A short time later when Lily re-entered the Entrance Hall with Alex, she found Harry and Ron talking animatedly about something while Neville stood nearby, adding his own two knuts here and there. Hermione sat on the floor next to Neville, her nose in a book, though Lily could see her hiding a grin, obviously finding what the boys were talking about amusing.

The latter two looked up as the two Potter females approached, both acknowledging them with a smile and a wave. As Neville turned back toward the conversation, however, Hermione made eye contact with Alex for a second before she started smiling.

"So Harry," Hermione began, "are you looking forward to having dinner with your mum and your sister?"

"Yeah," Harry said with a smile, "It would be better if mum was cooking, but it'll still be nice to see them… ACK!!"

"Aw," Alex said as she clung to her brother' back, "Does Harry miss his favorite sister?"

"Alex…get…off!" Harry as he finally managed to dislodge his sister from his back. He turned quickly to find her stand with her hands behind her back and smiling innocently up at him.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?" Harry reproached, though the smile tugging at his lips told everyone he wasn't as upset as he pretended.

"One thousand six hundred seventy-three and a half," she responded cheekily.

Harry threw his hand up in disgust, but the smile he was holding back fully blossomed.

"You'd think by now, Harry, you'd realized not to have your back facing someplace where she could sneak up on you like that," Hermione said as she stood before giving Alex a hug, "It's good to see you again, Alex."

"You too, Hermione, Neville," Alex said as gave Neville a hug as well before turning to Ron, "And you must be Ron. Ginny's told me a lot about you."

"Nothing bad I hope," Ron said.

"Oh, nothing too embarrassing," Alex said with a wave of her hand, "Though she did mention an incident when you were seven…"

Ron paled slightly as she trialed off.

"Alright, Alex, that's enough" Lily said, "If you've had your fun, why don't we start heading down to the Three Broomsticks."

"So Alex," Harry said as they left the castle proper, "Who was watching you for mum to risk flooing home?"

"No one," Alex answered, "I was home by myself."

"What?! Oh that's so not fair," Harry exclaimed, turning to his mother, "Why does she get to stay home alone and I always had to have someone watching me?"

"Because like me, I can trust Alex to behave when she's alone," Lily stated simply, "where as you take after your father and attract trouble like a moth to a flame."

"You start one fire…" Harry grumbled. Lily reached over and affectionately messed with her son's hair. Harry batted her hand away, but the grin that formed showed his true feelings.

"So what did you think of the broom?" Lily decided to asked, changing the subject.

"It was wicked," Ron said with a grin, "I've never been on a broom with such speed and agility. It outstrips my old Cleansweep by a mile."

"I'm glad you had fun, Ron," Lily smiled, "And I'm glad you had a chance at riding it, I almost expected Harry to hog it almost the entire time."

"Mum!" Harry whined as his friends laughed, "I gave them all a chance at riding it. I even got Hermione to take a short flight."

"Really? So what did you think, Hermione?" Lily asked, turning her attention to the girl in question.

"Well," Hermione started as they walked through the main gates, "It wasn't bad, though I haven't been on very many brooms to know the differences between them. I will say I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, though."

"I know what you mean," Lily agreed, "Though I prefer even broom travel to apparating," she grimaced, "Makes me sick to my stomach every time I do it. "

"Why does apparating make you sick, Mrs. Potter?" Hermione asked.

"Imagine the feeling of your entire body being sucked into and pushed out of very small rubber tube at the exact same instant," Lily said, "now double that feeling and you get what apparating feels like."

Hermione blanched slightly, "It doesn't sound very pleasant."

"It's not," Lily agreed, "But it is the fastest way for us to travel, and to be honest the severity of the feeling varies from person to person."

"So what's horrible for one person could be pleasant for the next?" Neville speculated.

"I wouldn't go that far," Lily said, "But even though it makes me sick a friend of mine can apparate all day without even a hit of discomfort."

"Yeah well, with that potion he always has to take, it's no wonder Uncle Remus has an iron stomach," Harry said with a grin.

"Well, he does eat your cooking, too," Alex pointed out.

"Oi, my cooking is NOT that bad," Harry argued.

"You have an Uncle?" Ron asked suddenly, "But I thought that your mum and your sister were your only family."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Mr. Lupin isn't really their uncle, Ron. He was a close friend of their father's and has remained close to the family," she turned to Harry, "Though with what I know now about your dad, I would guess that it's safe to assume he is a wizard as well?"

"Yep," Harry answered as he hoped up on a fallen log and started tight-rope walking across, "Uncle Remus, mum, and my dad were all in the same year at Hogwarts."

"He made a pretty convincing Muggle," Hermione said, "I never even guessed that anything was amiss about him."

"Well, both his parents were Muggle-borns, so wasn't too hard for him," Harry said, before giving Hermione a cheeky grin, "Then again, it's hard to find something amiss when you don't know what to look for in the first place."

Hermione gave Harry a mock glare before she bumped the log he was standing on, causing him to loose his balance. He half jumped; half fell off the opposite side. Harry tried to keep himself upright as he hit the ground, but his foot caught on a lump in the grass, completely overbalancing him and forcing Harry to the ground. He picked himself up and he did his best to ignore the laughter coming from the others.

"Are you… okay, Harry?" Hermione asked between fits of laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Harry responded as be brushed the dirt and dead leaves off his robes, then he looked up sharply, fixing Hermione wish a feral grin, "but you're _so _dead, Granger."

Hermione shrieked and took off down the lane, still laughing. Harry was hot on her heals, his own laughter filling the air.

"Oi, No killing," Ron shouted as he took off after them, "She still has to help me with my Charms essay for Monday."

Alex just rolled her eyes as she watched the three of them run off.

"Come on, Neville," she said with a sigh, before starting off after them, "We'd better stop them before they do anything permanent."

"Why do I always have to be dragged into the middle of things?" Neville asked, but followed along none the less.

-----

A few hours later, as Percy Weasley sat reading in one of the chairs in the Gryffindor common room, the fireplace flare up. Percy watched as it flashed green and saw his brother step out of the flames. It flashed two more times in quick succession emitting Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom respectively. There was a brief pause before the fire flashed once more and Harry Potter stumbled and fell out. Neville sighed as he reached down to help Harry stand.

"Honestly mate, you've got to start landing on your feet when you exist the floo," Neville said as he pulled Harry upright.

"Yeah, yeah," Harry grumbled as he dusted himself off. He had never liked floo travel.

"Excellent," Percy said as he shut his book, catching the four's attention, "You've arrived."

"Percy?" Ron asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I would think it would be obvious, Ronald," Percy said as he stood up, "I was waiting for you to return."

"Why? So you could get us in trouble for being out after curfew?" Ron accused.

"Hardly," Percy scoffed, "I just felt that it was prudent to make sure of your return than assume that you would. Floo mishaps are rare, but they _do _occur. Now that you all have arrived safely, I shall bid you a good evening."

"What was that all about?" Ron wondered out loud as Percy ascended the stair to the boy dormitories.

"Oh don't be daft, Ron, he was just worried about you," Hermione said as she started toward the stairs heading to the girl's dorm, "I'm going to head off to bed. Have a goodnight."

Ron stared after her, slightly confused before shrugging before starting off to bed himself.

"It was good seeing your family again, wasn't it Harry?" Neville asked as he and Harry followed after Ron.

"Yeah," Harry said with a smile, "it was."

-----

AN: Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter, but I couldn't get it to my liking, among other reasons. I rewrote it at least three different times and I'm still not exactly pleased with it, but I finally at least feel that it was decent enough to post. Hopefully the following chapters won't take nearly as long as this one did, but I make no guarantees.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Excitement and anticipation could both be felt in the air that Halloween morning. From the first years looking forward to their first time, to the seventh years waiting to enjoy their last, everyone was looking forward to the feast that night, with one notable exception. For Harry, Halloween had never been a day of fun and enjoyment; it had always been a day of loss and remembrance.

"You okay, Harry?" Hermione asked as she watched him slowly pick at his food. Harry shrugged.

"About as okay as I usually am today," he said before pushing his plate away. He wasn't all that hungry.

Hermione gave him a sympathetic smile before turning back to her own food. She knew today was always hard on Harry and his family, but she knew not to push him to talk about it. The best she could do was be there for him. If he wanted to talk, he would.

When she heard the chairs across the table from them being pulled out, she looked up to see Ron and Neville sitting down.

"So the two of you looking forward to the Halloween feast tonight?" Ron asked as he loaded his plate with food.

"Not really," Harry said.

"What? Why not? The twins tell me that there is going to be giant pumpkins and bats flying about and all sorts of good food," Ron explained.

"I'm going home to be with my family," Harry explained, "I probably won't be back until after the feast is over."

"Huh? Why?" Ron asked.

"We're going to visit my dad," Harry said simply.

Ron opened and closed his mouth before nodding in understanding. After all, he had gone with his mum to visit his uncles enough to know what he was talking about.

"That is today, isn't?" Neville stated, "When are you leaving?"

"After lunch," Harry explained, "I'm supposed to meet Professor McGonagall near the front entrance."

Neville nodded before returning to his breakfast. Harry looked back at Ron, noticing that he seemed a bit more subdued then he was before. He frowned. Just because he wasn't excited about the feast didn't mean his friends couldn't be.

"So Ron," he said, catching the redhead's attention, "What else have the twins told you about the feast?"

0o0o0o0

The rest of the morning past quickly for Harry, and it wasn't long before he was standing outside the Great Hall saying his good-byes.

"Give Alex and your Mum my best," Hermione said as she released him from a hug, "Tell them I'll be thinking about them."

"Always," Harry said, "And I expect to have a full report about the feast when I get back."

"I'll save you a peace of pie or something," Neville said, "That is if Ron doesn't eat it all."

"Oi!" Ron complained, "I don't eat _everything_ I see in front of me."

Harry smiled slightly and shook head before stepping over to where Professor McGonagall was standing. He nodded telling her that he was ready to go. Waving one last time to his friends, Harry stepped outside.

"Thank you for doing this, Professor," Harry said as they made their way to the front gate.

"It's the least I could do Harry," Professor McGonagall said, "Your father was a good man, and it's been sometime since I last paid my respects."

Harry nodded and the two made the rest of the way to the gates in silence. Once past the wards, Professor McGonagall put her arm around Harry's shoulder and together they apparated to the secluded spot in his back yard. As they waited for the gate leading further into the yard to open, Harry still had to marvel at the ingenuity of it all.

Physically, it was just a small pathway situated behind the storage shed in his back yard. Any noisy neighbor would think that anyone walking from here was coming from the wooded area behind the house. Magically, it was, according to his Uncle Remus, a thing of beauty.

It had been designed by his mum, with the help of Remus and Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother. Anyone attempting to apparate onto Harry's family's property, other than members of the Potter family, was magically funneled to this spot, which can easily be seen from the kitchen window. If it was somebody welcomed, the gate leading into the yard could be opened by himself, his mum, or his sister. If they weren't welcome, or nobody was home, the gate leading into the woods would be opened. Also, if anyone tried to force the inner gate open, they would be stunned and sent by portkey to one of about twenty locations picked randomly.

The inner gate opened quickly, allowing Harry and Professor McGonagall into the yard. He made his way toward the backdoor, only to find his sister waiting for him there. After a quick hug and greeting, Harry made introductions.

"Alex, this is Professor McGonagall, Transfigurations teacher, Head of Gryffindor House, and Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts," Harry said, "Professor, this is my sister Alex."

"Hello, Alex," Professor McGonagall said, shaking Alex's offered hand "Are you looking forward to starting at Hogwarts in the next few years?"

"Very much so, Professor," Alex said.

"Is Remus here?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Alex answered, "he and Mrs. Weasley are inside with mum."

"Mrs. Weasley?" Harry wondered, "Why is she here?"

"She overheard me tell Ginny why I couldn't spend time with her today," she explained, "After that she decided she was coming over this morning and wasn't going to take no for an answer."

Harry nodded. From what he had heard about her from Ron, that sounded like the exact thing Mrs. Weasley would do.

"How's Mum?" Harry asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"About how she usually is," Alex answered, "Both Remus and Mrs. Weasley are trying to help, but…"

Harry sighed, before turning toward Professor McGonagall to explain.

"Today is one the few days in the year that my mum becomes the most melancholy and inconsolable, apart from my dad's birthday. She tries not to let it upset her, but it takes even less today than usual to set her off."

"Well, your father did mean a great deal to her," Professor McGonagall stated.

"We know that, Professor," Alex said, "and truthfully some years are better than others. But it's hard for us to see our mum like this. She's usually so calm and level headed."

"We just… feel so helpless today," Harry added.

"As do we all," said someone from behind them. Both Harry and Alex turned to see Remus standing in the back door, "But the best we all can do is be there for her."

Harry quickly stepped over, giving Remus a hug, one that was quickly returned.

"Good to see you again, cub," Remus said as he let him go, "you, too, Professor."

"I stopped being your professor some time ago, Remus," Professor McGonagall pointed out.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," Remus said with a small, though somewhat forced smile, before ushering them into the house.

As Harry entered the house, he felt both a sense of oddness and comfort. It felt odd to think that he hadn't set foot in here in almost two months, a place he had spent nearly ten years living. But at the same time, he was comforted by the familiarity of his surroundings. It was that comfort he tried to grasp onto as he stepped into the sitting room.

The sight was just as he figured it would be, but it still tore at his heart all the same. Sitting on the sofa, her head resting on the shoulder of Mrs. Weasley, a pillow wrapped in her arms and tears stains on her face, was his mum. She looked up at him as he entered, giving him a sad little smile, and that was it. Feeling the tears coming to his own eyes, he was at his mum's side in an instant. No words were passed between mother and son, but neither were they needed.

Sometime later, Harry wasn't even sure how much time had pasted, he felt his mum pull away. He looked up, seeing her giving him another sad little smile.

"It's time to go."

0o0o0o0

No one paid any heed to the small group of people making their way through the main square of Godric's Hallow. Even dress as oddly as some of them were, they blended right in with the crowd around them. Harry guessed, in some small sense, he was thankful that today was Halloween; it meant fewer questions were asked when a group of people, some dress in wizard/ witches robes walked into the cemetery

After a quick Notice-Me-Not spell to insure their privacy, everyone stepped through the gate and into the graveyard beyond. Slowly, as they made there way toward his father's grave, Harry moved away from the others and wondered over to an elegant, though worn, gravestone. Removing two flowers from the handful he had for his father, he placed them before the grave of a mother and daughter who died only a few months apart. Harry had wondered, when he had first found the gravestone a few years ago, what sort of tragedy had befallen the family, but with the surname unreadable due to age, it would be nearly impossible to find out. Since then however, Harry had taken it upon himself to leave a small token in their honor.

His first stop completed, Harry continued after the others. As he approached, he noticed that Mrs. Weasley in front of his father's grave, paying her respect. He assumed that Professor McGonagall had gone first, due to the fact that she was nowhere to be seen and had to return to Hogwarts before the Halloween Feast began. After Mrs. Weasley, he knew that it would be Alex, himself, then Remus. His mum always went last.

Soon, it was his turn.

"Hey dad," Harry began as he set the flowers down, "So I started at Hogwarts this year. Got sorted into Gryffindor, just like you and Mum. Oh, and remember my Muggle friend I told you about? Turns out she was a witch. Got sorted into Gryffindor as well, though she could have just as easily been sorted into Ravenclaw as brilliant as she is. Only been in school two months and she's already top in almost every class, the only exception being Herbology, though she comes in a close second after Neville. That boy knows his plants. I think I'm somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I've never really paid all that much attention as to how I'm doing in class. Made a new friend as well, you met his Mum earlier, and I'm sure Alex mentioned his little sister to you as well. He has these twin brothers that I'm sure you would have loved to meet. Oh! I forgot to mention, I also somehow got onto the house team this year, youngest to do it in a century. I play Seeker. First game is this weekend against Slytherin."

He reached out and touched his father's name.

"I wish you could see me play," Harry whispered, "I wish I could know if you'd be… be proud of me."

Harry dropped his hand away and stood up, moving away to allow Remus a chance to talk to his friend. He only stood around for a few minutes before he turned to leave. The cemetery had suddenly become very oppressive.

0o0o0o0

Harry didn't bother to read the sign that had seemingly grown out of the ground if front of him, he knew what it said by heart:

_On this spot, on the night of the 31 October 1980, James Potter lost his life protecting what he held most dear. His son, Harry, remains the only wizard ever to have survived the Killing Curse. This house, invisible to Muggles, had been left in its ruined state as a monument to his sacrifice, and a reminder of the violence that took his life._

Instead, Harry gaze fell upon the cottage just beyond. Dark ivy covered it near completely, and the surrounding hedges and grasses had grown out of control in the eleven years since anyone had lived here. Rubble was still strewn about the yard where it had landed from where it had been blasted out of the right side of the top floor. There, Harry knew, was where both his life and his mums had changed forever.

Faintly he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, so he turned his head to find Remus walking up toward him. Harry turned back to stare at the cottage.

"Thought I'd find you here, cub," Remus said as he leaned against the small fence next to Harry. Harry grunted in response, but said no more.

Remus just stayed where he was and waited. He knew the cub well enough that he only came here when he had something on his mind; he also knew that he couldn't push Harry to talk about what was bothering him. The best course of action was to just wait and see if he would say anything.

"Moony," Harry started after a few minutes, "do you… do you think Dad would have been proud of me?"

"Without a doubt," Remus said without hesitation; not all that surprised with the question. He had had a feeling that's what this was about.

"Really?" Harry asked as he turned to Remus, and the older man could detect a bit hope in the boy's voice.

"Absolutely," Remus assured, "To be honest, I don't think proud would do James justice for how he felt about you. He was so ecstatic when he found out Lily was pregnant, I couldn't even being to describe it to you. I remember your mother was barely two months along, and already he and Padfoot had lists of ideas of what they would be teaching you when you where born. It drove Lils spar."

Harry smiled at Remus' description, only for his smile to falter at the mention of his father's best friend.

"Remus, do you think I'll ever be able to meet my godfather?"

Remus sighed, "I don't know, Harry. Without evidence to prove otherwise, there's little we can do."

"But he didn't even get a trial!" Harry exclaimed.

"I know Harry," Remus said, "And if it wasn't for your mother, everyone would still believe he's You-Know-Who's right hand man. But even if he was cleared of betraying your parents, there's still the murder of thirteen Muggles on his head. That alone warrants a sentence to Azkaban."

"But he didn't kill them," Harry said, "Right?"

"I'd like to think he didn't," Remus agreed, "but other than Sirius himself, whom I doubt the ministry would listen to unfortunately, only one person knows the truth."

"Peter Pettigrew," answered Harry. Remus nodded, "So you think he's still alive?"

"I hope so, though after eleven years, I'm starting to wonder," Remus said with a shake of his head, "but even so, I'm not giving up."

"Is that why you missed my birthday this year?" Harry asked, "You where looking for Pettigrew?"

"I didn't want to, cub, I really didn't," Remus answered regretfully, "But I had a lead over in Romanian that seemed promising. Turned out to be rubbish, unfortunately."

"That's okay, Moony," Harry said as he turned back toward his families old cottage, "I think the best gift you could ever give me is my godfather back."

0o0o0o0

A few hours later, Harry stepped out of the Floo into a very crowded, very noisy common room. Once he recovered from his surprise, Harry made his way through the crowd in an attempt to find his friends. Several minutes later, he finally found Neville, Ron, and Hermione tucked away in the back corner.

"Harry! Looks like you made it back for the feast after all," Ron said as he handed him a plate full of food, "Here, tuck in."

Harry looked down at the plate and then back up to his friends.

"What's going on? Why is everyone in here? Where did the food come from?" He asked, still slightly shocked at his surroundings.

"We'll explain in the morning," Neville said as he waved off Harry's questions, "Right now just sit back and enjoy."

Still a bit bewildered, Harry took his friend's advice and sat down in the seat next to Hermione. As he crawled into bed several hours later, full of food and feeling the best he had all day, two thoughts were drifting around his head as he drifted off to sleep. In the back of his mind, he was curious about the explanation. Harry was fairly certain he had heard the word 'troll' more than once over the course of the evening. But foremost on his mind was that perhaps, at least in part, he could look forward to Halloween in the future.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea and any OC that come with it.

AN: Sorry for the long wait, but, among other reasons, I had trouble getting this chapter the way I wanted it. It's still not quiet there, but it's good enough to convey what I wanted in this chapter. I make no promises, but hopefully the next one won't take as long

Chapter 11

When she had realized that Harry had already left the castle, Hermione, along with Ron and Neville had quickly made their way down to the Quidditch Pitch after breakfast, hoping to get a good spot in the stands. Though not the sporting type herself, she had enjoyed the occasional football match with her dad; as such she had been looking forward to watching Quidditch. Though when she cringed as she saw another bludgers connect, this time with Alicia Spinnet's broom, making her nearly drop the Quaffle, she began to wonder how safe the game might be.

"Are all Quidditch games this… vindictive?" she asked, looking over at Ron, thought the redhead seemed not to have heard her as he continued to watch the game. With an exasperated sigh, Hermione turned toward Neville, who just shrugged.

"I wouldn't know," he admitted, "I've only been to a handful of Puddlemere United games with Harry, and most of those weren't nearly this bad."

"They usually aren't," Ron answered, surprising Hermione with the fact that he actually heard her, "With the exceptions of championship games, only when there is a fierce rivalry between the teams do Quidditch games get this bad."

"Like the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin," Hermione said, nodding in understanding.

"Or like the one between the Harpies and Puddlemere," came a surprising voice next to Hermione. She turned to find Harry's sister grinning at her, "Those games make this one here seem like child's play."

"Alex!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling Alex into a quick hug before pulling away, "What are you doing here? Harry didn't say…"

"Harry doesn't know," Alex said, "Mum and I wanted to surprise him, but…"

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Ron exclaimed after seeing the redhead who had walked up the stands behind Alex.

"Nice to see you to, Ron," Ginny Weasley said with a roll of her eyes. Ron blanched at the slight hurt tone she had.

"That's not… I didn't mean… Oh come here you," Ron sputtered before he reached over and pulled his sister into patented Weasley hug. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the obvious closeness between the two siblings.

"I _am _glad to see you, Ginny, I'm just surprised is all," Ron said after he let her go.

"It wasn't easy," Ginny said, "We had to convince Alex's mum to let us come without her."

"Your mum didn't come?" Neville asked Alex.

"She was going at first," Alex said, "But then she got a panicked call from Mrs. Solsbee _again, _so she had to go take care of it."

"So you came by yourselves?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Of course not," Alex dismissed the question with a wave of her hand, "Our chaperon just fell a little behind."

"There you two are!" came a shout, and Hermione looked up to see Hagrid quickly bounding up the stands. Even from a few steps away, Hermione could tell that Hagrid was annoyed.

"I told ya girls not ta run off like tha'," Hagrid said, giving both Alex and Ginny a stern look, "I told ya mum, Alex, tha' I'd look after the two o' ya."

"Sorry Hagrid," Alex said as she gave him a beaming smile, Ginny stepping up next to her doing the same, "We were just sp excited to come see Harry play."

"Well, uh," Hagrid started as he started at the two smiling girls, his annoyance quickly fading, "Jus' see tha' ya don' do it again."

The two girls shared a triumphant grin as Hagrid made his way past to stand on the other side of Neville. Hermione just shook her head in amusement. She had seen Alex do this sort of thing before, and as soft and big hearted as Hagrid was she knew that he never stood a chance. Ron however, was giving his sister a knowing grin when she turned around.

"What?" she asked.

"Mum doesn't know you're here, does she?" he said, and was rewarded with seeing her blush before she turned a glare at him.

"No," she admitted, "and if you tell her Ron, Merlin help me…"

"Whoa there," Ron said, holding up his hands to placate his sister, "Mum won't here a peep from me, I swear. And you know the twins will be proud of there devious little sister. You just better hope we don't run into Percy."

"To right on that," Ginny agreed, "No budge over, we're missing the game."

0o0o0o0

"Harry's seen the Snitch" Alex cried some time later, catching the attention of everyone around her, forcing them to switch their attention to her brother. They all watched as Harry slowly closed in on the little golden ball, the Slytherin seeker to far behind to pose any real threat. He nearly had the Snitch in his grasp when he was slammed into by the Slytherin captain Marcus Flint, forcing Harry to hold onto his broom as it spun briefly out of control.

"That was horrid!" exclaimed Hermione as Madam Hooch awarded Gryffindor a penalty shot.

"That's Quidditch," Ron said, though he was as upset as the rest of them.

"It's still foul," Ginny grumbled, "A decent Quidditch team wouldn't need to break the rules so blatantly, if at all."

"Look!" Neville cried, pointing up, "Something's wrong with Harry's broom."

Everyone looked up to find Harry once again holding tightly to his broom, while the broom itself was shaking and bucking wildly.

"Could the impact have done something to the broom?" Hermione asked as one of the twins attempted to move closer to try to get Harry. Almost the entire crowd gasped when the broom suddenly jerked higher.

"I doubt it," Alex said as looked through the binoculars she had brought to get a closer look at how her brother was doing. It didn't look good, "If it were that easy to make them go haywire, the Bludgers would do it constantly.

"Alex is right," Hagrid agreed, looking through his own binoculars, "It'd take some dark magic to affect 'o broom like tha'."

"Hagrid, give me your binoculars for a second," Hermione said; she quickly scanned the crowd after Hagrid had given them to her then quickly handed them to Ron "There! Look at Snape!"

Ron took them quickly and looked where she was pointing.

"That ruddy bastard!" Ron exclaimed, lowering the binoculars from his eyes, "I knew he was an evil git!"

"Might not be him," Alex said, lowering her own binoculars and pointing, "Turban at three o'clock."

"Quirrell?" Ron exclaimed as he brought the binoculars back up to his eyes, only to see Quirrell doing exactly the same as Snape, "So which is it?"

"Well we don't have long to debate," Neville said, "By the looks of things Harry doesn't have a lot of time."

"I'll take care of it," Hermione said before running off.

"Hurry!" Ron called after her, but she was already lost in the crowd.

Minutes passed, though it seemed like hours, as they watch Harry cling precariously to his every increasingly unstable broom, waiting for Hermione to do whatever she was going to do. When Harry slipped and was hanging on by only one hand, Ron almost lost hope, but when the broom became still not too long after, he breathed a sigh of relief, only for it to catch as Harry went into a steep dive almost before he had completely pulled himself back onto his broom. Ron watched as Harry barely pulled out of his dive, before Harry slapped his hand over his mouth and tumbled into the grass. Seconds later he held something up in his closed fist. Harry had caught the Snitch.

"Come on," Alex said as she started to make her way out of the stands, "Let's go congratulate my brother on a great catch before I smack him for giving me a heart attack."

0o0o0o0

As the rest of Gryffindor house continued the post win celebration started at the pitch back in the common room, Harry and his friends made their way to Hagrid's hut. At first, Harry had been happy to seen his sister, but as he sat down in one of Hagrid's oversized chairs still rubbing his arm, he wasn't so sure."

"Did you have to hit me so hard?" He asked her.

"Of course I did," Alex said in a huff, "Be lucky I don't have a wand yet, or I would have hexed you instead. You know Mum probably would have if she were here. And why aren't you wearing your glasses, you know you can't see without them."

"I can when I'm wearing contacts," Harry said cheekily.

"Contacts?" Hermione questioned, "When did you get contacts?"

"When I went back to talk to Madam Pomfrey after she fixed my leg," Harry answered, "Thought it would be best not to rely on my glasses during the game after what happened at practice yesterday."

"Fixed your leg? What happened?" Alex asked.

"Wood decided to have me run something called the 'Seekers Gauntlet' in a last minute practice yesterday," Harry began to explain, "Basically the entire team becomes Beaters and start hitting Bludgers at me while I try to catch the Snitch. Apparently it was created by Ron and Ginny's brother Charlie when he was Seeker."

"Of course Charlie's about twice Harry's size and about a hundred kilos heavier," Ron interrupted, "Sorry mate."

"Anyway," Harry continued, "It was going well at first, but a near missed knocked my glasses askew. By the time a got them back in place, I was nearly face to face with another bludger. I pulled back hard on my broom, but it wasn't enough and the bludger hit me hard enough to break my leg."

"Wha' was Oliver thinkin'," Hagrid said with a shake of his head, "He shoulda known be'er than ta put ya through somethin' like tha before a game."

"Well he got lucky it was just my leg," Harry said, "As it was Madam Pomfrey was reluctant to let me play today. Had it been my arm or something worse, I doubt she would have no matter how much Wood begged her.

"On my way back to the Tower after she let me go, I began to think about how much of a handicap my glasses where. Like Alex said, I can't really see without my glasses. So I turned around and decided to ask Madam Pomfrey what she knew about fixing eyes."

"But why go with contacts?" Hermione asked, "Surely there's a spell that could fix our eyes."

"There are," Harry answered, "but they take time, and results can be iffy at best. Madam Pomfrey decided my best option was probably going to be contacts."

"So are you going to be wearing them all the time now?" Neville asked.

"I was warned off wearing them in either Potions or Herbology," Harry said, "but I don't know. I don't know if I like them yet. I might just wear them for Quidditch games."

"I think you should wear them," Ginny blurted out, then blushed furiously when everyone had turned in her direction. It had been the first time Harry had heard her say anything since she quietly said hello when they first met.

"It… it brings out your eyes," Ginny meekly continued, her head down and looking at the floor.

"Oh… uh… thank you," Harry said, feeling the heat rising in his face. He quickly decided it was best to change the subject, "So anybody know what happened to my broom?"

"It was being cursed," Hermione stated, "We just don't know who was doing it."

"Then how were you able to stop it?" Harry wondered.

"Well, we know that it was either Snape or Quirrell," Hermione explain, "Both were looking at you broom without blinking."

"Tha's rubbish," Hagrid grunted, "Why would either o' them want ta hurt 'Arry?"

"Who knows with Quirrell," Harry said, "But I did walk in on Snape getting his leg patched by Madam Pomfrey when I went back to ask about my eyes. Apparently he had been trying to get past the three headed dog on the third floor at Halloween."

"How do ya know about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked.

"Fluffy?" Ron said incredulously, "You named that thing?"

"'Course I named him, he's mine," Hagrid said proudly, "Loaned him to Dumbledore to protect the… um… well, I loaned Fluffy to him for the year."

"So it is protecting something," Hermione said, picking up on Hagrid's slip, "Maybe Snape was trying to get whatever it is. He could have been hexing Harry's broom to keep him from snooping. Quirrell was casting the counter curse."

"But the opposite could be true as well," Neville said, "maybe Quirrell was the one hexing Harry's broom, and Snape was trying to protect him. And maybe he tried to stop Quirrell from getting what Fluffy was protecting and was injured in the process. After all, Quirrell _was _the one who warned us about the troll on Halloween. Maybe he let it in as a distraction?"

"Now enough o' tha'," Hagrid said, "Neither Professor Snape or Professor Quirrell would be tryin' to get past Fluffy. So jus' fo'get about all o' tha'."

"But what if the item is extremely valuable?" Alex offered, "Maybe it's too much for them to pass up?"

"You can fo'get about tha' too," Hagrid said gruffly, " Tha' item is none o' yo' business. It's jus' between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."

"Aha, so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved in all this as well, is there?" Ron said.

Hagrid groaned and mumbled something about how he shouldn't have said that.


End file.
